Tournament of Fire
by BakaDango
Summary: It's the Tournament of Fire and Tsunade has just entered Hinata and her fellow kunoichi as contestants on the basis that it's to get back at her life long rival, Jiraiya. Little do they know they it's more like a blind date.
1. First Meeting

AN: Due to popular demand, Tournament of Fire is back. Here is the re-edited version of the first chapter.

NaruXHina and other variety pairings. I changed some the character's personalities to my liking :p.

Naruto's generation are about 16. (may change in the future

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Me no own Naruto.

Chp 1 – First Meeting

THE ARENA

The Crowd roared as the first team entered the arena. The final round of the Tournament of Fire was about to begin. The last five days of the Tournament had left the crowd hanging on the edge of their seats. But today's fight was rumored to be even more spectacular than the last ones. Konoha's legendary five against Tsunade's five flowers of death. They had watched the legendary five take down team after team and when the crowd saw that the rumors about the five flowers of death being all women were true, they thought the victory was all but assured for the legendary five. Still, the name "flowers of death" left a certain doubt hanging in the back of their minds. As Tsunade's kunoichi finished lining themselves up, the arena grew quiet as the crowd waited for the match to begin.

Kiba let out a whistle. "They really are girls…pretty ones too." eyeing one of them with long black hair flowing down her back.

"Careful Kiba." warned Shikamaru. "I don't think the name 'flowers of death' is just a decoration." Eyeing a kunoichi with a large fan on her back, Shikamaru simply sighed. "This is such a pain."

Neji shifted nervously in place. "How do I fight a bunch of girls without looking like a jerk and not let everyone else down…?" Neji noticed one of the kunoichi staring at him. When his eyes met hers, she simply smiled and waved. The attention proved to be too much for him and he quickly averted his gaze. The whole time Choji said nothing and continued munching his BBQ chips, stopping only momentarily to open another bag. Sai as usual was paying them no attention, busily painting on a scroll.

Temari was laughing hysterically. "Those boys are the legendary five? More like the loser five. I can't wait to crush them."

"Only as long as I get one. " said Sakura, cracking her knuckles.

"Is that all you care about these days?' Ino sneered. "Ever since Tsunade-sama taught you how to use that incredible strength of hers, all you care about these days is smashing things."

"I do not!" Sakura defended herself.

Hinata watched as the girls argued with each other. Placing a hand on her hip, she sighed. She really didn't want to be here but nooo, once Tsunade-sama heard that her lifelong rival, Jiraiya would be entering his legendary five in the Tournament of Fire in the capital, she just had to enroll her own notorious five ninja in the tournament as well.

Kiba licked his lips as she watched Hinata's posture. "I like em sassy." He whispered. Shikamaru hearing this asked "What?"

"Hinata" Sakura whispered. "One of them is giving you a dirty look." Hinata looked up to where Sakura was pointing. "Ew." She said looking straight at Kiba.

Kiba saw Hinata staring at him. He smiled confidently. "Oh yeah. She wants me. I can feel it." Shikamaru however did believe that this was the case.

Sakura sighed. "Not a single good looking guy out there. This sucks."

"I don't know, Sakura." TenTen disagreed. "That one with the long hair is pretty cute."

Hinata stared at TenTen. "I think his name's Neji. I think I remember seeing him a couple of times at the family gatherings. I could probably introduce you."

TenTen squealed with delight, jumping for joy. "Really Hinata? Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!"

"I don't know TenTen. They all look like dorks to me. Especially that one with the ponytail and has a bored look on his face. Guys like him just piss me off."

"I like that one, the one that's painting."

The girls turned around immediately staring at Ino.

"What? I think being artistic is sexy!"

Sai who had been reading their lips this whole time quickly painted something on a piece of paper, folded it into a plane, infused it with some chakra and flew it over to Ino. Ino caught the plane as it glided towards her. Opening it, she let out a romantic sigh. "Aw!"

"What?" "What is it" The girls around her asked.

"Look!" She said showing them a childish drawing of Sai and Ino holding hands. "Isn't it sweet?" She giggled.

The girls stood there dumbfounded. "I will never understand her taste in men." Sakura whispered to Hinata who in turn gave her own giggle.

Ino blew a kiss which prompted Temari to interrupt their little love fest. "Alright Ino, save it for after the match. We have a job to do."

The referee appeared in the center of the stage grabbing everyone's attention. He asked "Are both teams assembled and ready?" looking both teams. Everyone was itching for the match to start. Kiba thought to himself "I know! I'll make myself look so cool out there, that girl will fall head over heels for me." He chuckled thinking himself a genius for contemplating such an elaborate plan.

"Are you ready?" the referee asked both teams. "Hai!"

"Begin!" he yelled jumping back. At that point all hell broke loose. A wind from the east blew in and carried Choji's chips from his hands. "Ah! My chips!" he cried. At the same time, Kiba took off running leaving Akamaru in a state of confusion wondering where his master had gone.

"Kiba! Wait." Shikamaru cried. "Choji! It's just a bag a chips for kami's sake." But in his sorrow, Choji did not hear him, crying for his lost bag of chips. "Tch! Neji! Go back up Kiba!" Neji took off after Kiba. Shikamaru turned to Sai. "Sai! Get off your ass and start fighting!" Sai looked at Shikamaru and sighed, putting away his scroll. Grabbing a different one , he suddenly shuddered and stood up dropping his new scroll to the ground. "Sai?" Shikamaru asked in concern.

Kiba had crossed half of the arena by the time he had noticed Akamaru was not by his side. "Akamaru?" he called turning side to side. Hinata appeared beside and he thought "Nice timing. Chance!" Forgetting all about the tournament, he proceeded to introduce himself. "Hi. My name's – ." He got no further as Hinata wasted no time in letting him tell her his name. She slammed her palm into his stomach, knocking the air out of him and sent him into the air. She immediately followed and shouted "Twin Lion Fists!" slamming him into the ground. Kiba managed to say "Ki…ba…" before passing out.

"Kiba!" yelled Neji. "Now, now. Now's not the time to be looking away." said a voice. Neji looked up to see the kunoichi from before holding a giant ninja scroll. "That doesn't look good." TenTen opened the scroll and proceeded to throw a flurry of weapons at him. "DEFINITELY NOT GOOD!" he reassured himself. "Rotation!" he yelled spinning in a circle.

"Sai! Control yourself!" shouted Shikamaru. "This isn't good." Looking around he saw one of the kunoichi on the ground, as if she was unconscious. "What happened there?" He quickly put one and one together. "Don't tell me- "

"Sickling Winds!" Temari yelled. "Aw shit!" Shikamaru cursed as he was lifted up into the air and tossed against the arena wall.

Sai turned around. "Jeez Temari! You also hit me as well!" Ino shouted in Sai's voice. "That's it I'm out of here before I run into any more trouble. Release!" Sai looked around confused. "What's going on?" He asked himself. He approximately 5 seconds to process everything going around him before he saw a shadow loom over him. He turned around and a saw a pink haired kunoichi aiming her fist straight at his face. Sai simply smiled and said "Oh my."

Meanwhile, TenTen was still throwing weapons at Neji who in turn was still spinning. "Geez! How many weapons does this chick have?" He thought to himself. He suddenly felt sick in his stomach. "Ulp. I think I'm going to hurl." He moaned. Neji saw TenTen drop her scroll and reach for the one behind her back. "It's either now or never!" Neji stopped his rotation and leaped away just as fourteen kunai hit the ground where he was just standing. A little more than 10 meters away, Neji landed exhausted. But he was given no rest as he saw a shadow loom over him and once again leaped away. Sakura landed smashing the ground. "Tch!" she growled. Neji lept away and simply stared at both Sakura and TenTen who were both approaching him with smiles on their faces. "These chicks are crazy!" He thought frantically. "It's over." a voice said in a soft tone. "Shit." Neji said turning around at the voice. "8 trigrams, 64 palms."

Choji lay on the ground crying for his chips. He looked up and saw a single chip lying on the ground. "Ah…" he whispered hopeful. He started crawling towards the chip crying tears of joy when suddenly a foot stomped the chip out of existence. "Ah…" he moaned. He looked up and saw Temari smirking at him. He crawled away from her. "Shikamaru help!" he cried. Temari walked towards him laughing. Choji continued crawling away from her when he bumped into something. Turning around, he saw Hinata, Sakura, TenTen and Ino staring at him with malicious smiles on their face. "Aaaahhhhhh!" he screamed as the girls lay waste to him. Akamaru barked at the girls and when they turned around, he saw their devilish smiles and waved a small white flag.

The crowd stared in awe. The match had lasted at the most 5 minutes and Konaha's Legendary five had been beaten like they were nothing, not to mention by a bunch of girls.

Temari could tell that the crowd was surprised to see a bunch of girls beat the boys. "Sexist bastards."

Jiraiya sighed "Did they really have to embarrass themselves like that?" He looked across the arena and Tsunade smirking at him. He sighed again and summoned a frog. "Here." He said tossing a bag of ryos to the frog. "Take it to Tsunade." The frog laughed. "Lose another bet again Jiraiya?" "Oh shut it and get going." The frog disappeared into a poof of smoke. Jiraiya watched as the frog appeared beside Tsunade and she grabbed the money. She flashed a quick smile, got up from her seat and left.

In the kunoichi locker room

"Haha! Did you see the look on that guys face when he turned around and saw all of us?" laughed Sakura. "Hilarious!" They all laughed with her.

"Well Sakura. Who knew that you were such a Sadist?" Ino commented.

"Who's a Sadist?" Tsunade chimed in.

"Oh, Tsunade-sama. We were just talking about how Sakura takes pleasure in causing pain to men." laughed Ino.

"I do not! If anyone does it's Hinata!"

"What?" Hinata asked shocked.

"Don't pretend you don't know what we're talking about…" poking Hinata in the side. "We all know that one guy…what was his name, Kiba? We all know that he was trying to introduce himself and you just lay waste to him."

"Oh? Did our little Hinata fall in love on the battlefield?"

"No way, but TenTen and Ino did." Hinata said trying to get away from being the center of attention.

"Yeah? Temari? Sakura? You see any cute guys?"

"Not a chance." Temari said instantly. "They were all dorks especially the guy with the pony tail. You guys see how I made him fly into the wall? She started laughing hysterically.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Who knew that Temari was that kind of girl?"

Hinata spotted her chance to get a little bit of revenge. "Well, we really didn't get a chance to look at them. I mean Sakura was so busy using them as punching bags, we couldn't even tell who was who once she was done with them."

Sakura gave Hinata a little growl. Tsunade was quiet as she thought about the current situation. "…I guess that only leaves these two. Sigh. After all that trouble that I went through." "Alright everyone" she said clapping her hands. "We're heading back so hurry it up!"

"What?" cried Ino. "I didn't even get to talk Sai yet!"

"Don't worry Ino. I'm sure you'll get your chance."

Outside the Arena

Jiraiya sighed still disappointed at his team's performance. He watched as Tsunade led her kunoichi away from the arena. He caught her attention and flashed a quick peace sign to him. To any other person, they would have thought nothing of it but Jiraiya knew better. "Hmm…two eh? Really, her kunoichi are so troublesome." He sighed for a moment. "Looks like I'll have to send those two." He got up and started walking. "Kitsune. Hebi.".

Two ninja appeared behind him. Both wore ANBU masks and had the standard ANBU equipment. The only real difference between the two was that one had short yellow hair with spikes while the other had slightly longer black hair. "Hai Jiraiya-Sama."

He turned to both of them and handed them small letter. "I need you to deliver this to Tsunade." Both looked at each other then back at Jiraiya. "Can't you just send a frog?" He shook his head. "Nope this is important. I can't just send a familiar." "Understood. Jiraiya-sama." They left as quickly as they had come.

On the path to Tsunade's Villa

Tsunade stretched her arms anxious to get home. "We're going to drink until we can't think straight!"

"Ugh…" they all groaned. They had all gone drinking with Tsunade before and none of them wanted to experience that again.

Hinata sensed that they were being followed. "Byakugan!" Hinata's vision extended and she saw two ANBU ninjas following them. She smiled. "Sneaky…but not sneaky enough." She turned around. "Tsunade-sama." She whispered. Tsunade nodded. "Go ahead. Take Sakura." Hinata nodded. "Understood. Sakura-chan." They both took off in an instant. The girls were surprised to see them leave. "Tsunade-sama, is something wrong? Why did Hinata and Sakura leave?" Tsunade turned around to face them. 'Alright! We're going to take a short break and drink!" "Ugh!"

Both the ANBU watched the group break out the drinks and start partying. "Well that's careless of them. Should we interrupt them?" Kitsune chuckled.

"Who's going to interrupt whom?" said a voice behind them. Both ANBU jumped away from Hinata as Sakura missed them both and smashed the branch they were just sitting on. "Dam it! That's the second time today."

The two ANBU were in the open now and the girls could see why both Hinata and Sakura had left earlier. Hebi stood up "We're just here to deliver a message." Tsunade looked away from her glass, already signs that she was drunk were showing. "That's nice." she said. "But you might want to pay more attention to yourself." Hebi turned around just to see Sakura come flying at him and smash him into the ground. Kitsune had his hands full ducking and weaving around Hinata. For a full 5 minutes, the girls watched and laughing at the two as it looked like the two were dancing. Hinata on the other hand did not think that this was funny at all.

"Why can't I hit him?" she thought just barely missing him again. "Stop moving!" she screamed at him, her frustration already at its limit. This got the girls to burst into laughter. Never had they seen Hinata so flustered before.

"C'mon Hinata!" yelled Sakura. "I'm already done with mine. Hurry up!" She sat atop of Hebi as if he were some kind of trophy.

Kitsune smiled beneath his mask. "If you want to ask me out all you have to do is just ask, you don't have to go through all this trouble, Hinata-chan." he said stressing out the "chan" part. That blew a gasket. Not only were her teammates laughing at her, but this blond haired monkey was mocking her as well. At this moment, Kitsune saw his chance and swung a kick at her head but managed to only kicked only air. Hinata appeared under Kitsune. 'This is over!" she yelled. "8 trigrams, 64 palms."

1!

2!

4!

8!

16!

32!

64!

Kitsune collapsed and the girls whistled but Hinata wasn't done yet. She would make him pay for mocking her. She jumped on top of him and pinned him to the ground. "Twin Lion Fists!" she yelled slamming her fists into Kitsune.

"Ouch!" the girls cried. "Should we stop her? I think she's going overboard." TenTen asked in concern. "Be my guess." Temari said. "But there is no way I am getting in the way of the girl's revenge." Tsunade merely hiccupped from her sake.

Hinata was panting as she sat on top of Kitsune. "That'll teach you...". He simply smiled before turning into smoke leaving Hinata dumbfounded. The girls gasped. "Shadow Clone? But how? When?"

"Kyaa!" The girls turned around at Sakura's scream. She was sitting on top of a bunch of snakes that were slowly beginning to wrap themselves around her legs and body. "Somebody help! I hate snakes! Kyaa!"

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*. They all looked up at the sound of clapping. Sitting in one of the trees was the Blond and Black haired ANBU. "Alright Hebi, you had your fun." He chuckled and released the jutsu. Sakura was still screaming as the snakes disappeared and she fell hitting her butt on the ground. "Ow!"

"Like we said, ladies. All we're here to do is deliver a message." Kitsune said throwing the piece of paper at Tsunade. Hinata snatched the message as it flew towards Tsunade, glaring at Kitsune. "Feisty." He thought.

"Here Tsunade-sama." handing the message over. Tsunade took the message and opened it. _Will these two do? _It read. Tsunade looked at Sakura who was yelling at the black haired ANBU telling him to get down and fight for real. She turned her gaze to Hinata who was still glaring at the yellow haired ANBU as if she wanted to kill him. She smiled and wrote down a quick message. "Here. Take it and return it to Jiraiya." She said holding it up. Both ANBU appeared behind her shocking the girls. "We'll be taking our leave now, Tsunade-sama." They walked past the girls eager to get a reaction from the two they had just fought. They smiled as they saw both Hinata and Sakura coming towards them.

"Sakura! Hinata!" yelled Tsunade startling the two. Both Hebi and Kitsune chuckled. As Hebi walked by Sakura, he reached out to her with a snake around his arm. She squealed and jump back a few steps. As Kitsune walked by Hinata, he stared into her face and saw that she was brimming with anger. He smiled. "Bye Bye, I'll see you later my dancing hime." This pushed her over the edge. Temari, TenTen and Ino had to hold her down as the two ANBU left.

Hyuga House in Kunoichi Village

"I'm back." Hinata moaned as she entered the house.

Hanabi looked into the hallway. "Welcome back sis. How was the trip?"

"Horrible." Hinata replied as she walked into the living room and buried her face into a pillow. Hanabi looked confused. "I'm home, Hanabi!" cried a voice at the sound the door opening and closing.

"Hey Mom. Hinata just got back!"

"Oh? How was the trip, Hinata?"

"Horrible." Hinata replied not even lifting her face from the pillow. Their mother looked concerned. "Where did you girls go this time?"

"The fire capital."

"No way? Really? What for?" Hanabi squealed desperate for answers.

"The tournament of Fire." sighed Hinata.

Their mother gasped which caused both Hinata and Hanabi to look at her. "What's wrong mom?" they asked. "Oh nothing." She said innocently. Turning her back to them she hid a smile recalling a time when she, herself went to an event called the tournament of fire and met a certain young man named Hyuga Hiashi. "Is it already that time?" she thought as she turned around and looked at Hinata. She looked over her daughter and realized that Hinata wasn't her baby girl anymore, but rather a beautiful young woman ready to blossom. "I guess it is."

"So Hinata… Did you meet anyone interesting?" Hinata still had her face buried in the pillow."No…not really." she replied.

"Oh…" her mother replied disappointed. At that point a voice came from the window that was open. "Not even a certain yellow haired ninja?" Hinata instantly got up knowing the voice. "TenTen!"

This grabbed her mother's attention. "Yellow Haired Ninja? Who is he?"

"He's no one!" Hinata cried.

TenTen grinned. "Oh he's just someone we met on our way back from the tournament. He was running a message for Jiraiya-sama to Tsunade-sama before Hinata attacked him."

"You attacked him?" Hinata's mother cried in horror.

"Yep." TenTen said before Hinata could answer. "But Hinata couldn't lay a finger on him. And when she did, turned out to be a shadow clone!"

"TenTen!" Hinata cried, throwing her pillow at her. "What do you want?"

TenTen giggled as she dodged the pillow. "Tsunade wants to talk to all of us. Hurry up."

Hinata sighed as she got up. "Alright. I'll see you later mom. Don't wait for me at dinner. I'll probably be late. That means you're doing dishes Hanabi!"

'What!" her sister cried. Hinata laughed as she ran out the door.

Hinata's mother watched her daughter run out the door and disappear. "Yellow haired ninja…" she thought curiously.

Konoha

"Achoo!" Kitsune sneezed. Hebi turned around startled. "Cold?"

"Nope." He replied wiping his nose. "Someone's probably talking about me."

"Ah." Hebi said. "Think it was your 'dancing hime'?"Kitusune smiled and chuckled. "I hope so."

FIN CHP.1 –

Me: Alright everyone. That's the end of Chp 1. Hope you enjoyed -.

Naruto: "Wait wait wait! Where am I in this story? and why does it look like that Kitsune guy and Hinata are going to get together? I thought I was going to get together with Hinata!

Sasuke: I would like to know as well. –pulls out sword-

Me: well…uh…haha – runs away –

Naruto disappears and reappears.

Me: what…the…

Sasuke: Hold him Naruto.

Me: wait…there's a good explanation for this! Well…uh…you guys appear in the next chapter…haha…

Both: We better or… else!

Me: -nods head-

To be continued…


	2. Ramen Boys

Chp 2 – Ramen Boys

**Kunoichi Village**

Both TenTen and Hinata arrived at Tsunade's office and saw the rest of their team already there. The atmosphere inside seemed tense. "Come in, Hinata. TenTen. Close the door behind you if you would." The two walked inside nervously, closing the door behind them. Usually Tsunade was upbeat, and was always drinking but the Tsunade they saw in front of them was sober and serious.

Lining up with the rest of the girls, the team stood silent. Tsunade looked up at them all. She smiled. "Minna! Congratulations. You did well in beating Jiraiya's boys in the tournament." The girls sighed relieved thinking that something terrible had happened. "Because of your outstanding victory in the Tournament, you're all being promoted to Chunin." They all cheered congratulating each other.

Tsunade turned to Hinata. "Hinata, you did especially well taking down two of them. You're not just being promoted to Chunin but to Jonin as well." The girls crowded around Hinata patting her on the back.

Tsunade's smile then disappeared. "Now that you've all graduated from being genin…" She paused. "You're to return to Konoha immediately."

The girls stopped cheering. They looked at Tsunade shocked. "We're…going to Konoha?" The girls stared at each other. All of them had left Konoha years ago. All of them had been only about five years old when they left Konoha so memories of the place were hazy. They had practically lived in kunoichi village their entire lives but they knew waiting back home for them were family that they had all left behind in order to come train here at Kunoichi village.

"Your training here is complete. There is nothing more that I can teach you. You're all to report to Konoha where -."

"No!" Hinata shouted. Everyone turned to her surprised. "This is OUR home! We can't just leave it and our -."

"Hinata!" Tsunade shouted furiously. "You're a Jonin now. Start acting like one!" Hinata bit her lip. Tsunade sighed. "Like I said, all of you are to report Konoha in the morning. Dismissed." Tsunade said sitting down. The girls turned around and began to leave. "Hinata. Stay here." Hinata watched as her team look back concerned wondering why she didn't want to leave. They all wanted to see their fathers again. Didn't she? She gave them a little wave to let them know that she would be fine. "Sit down."

Hinata took a seat but kept her face down trying to avoid Tsunade's gaze. Tsunade looked at Hinata. "Hinata." Hinata looked up at the sound of her name. "Why are you so against leaving Kunoichi village? Don't you want to go back?"

"It's…it's because this is our home! We grew up here!"

Tsunade knew that this wasn't true. "Hinata." She said sternly. "What's the real reason?" Hinata sat there silently.

*Flashback*

**Hyuga Compound - Konoha **

"Hah!" cried Hinata. Hiashi walked back as his daughter tried to attack him. "Hah! Hah!" she yelled. He frowned in displeasure. Hinata was already 5 years old and yet this was all that she was capable of? He aimed a low kick at her legs expecting her to dodge it. "Yah!" she cried as she was lifted into the air and fell back into the ground. Thud!

Hiashi shook his head and walked away. He was disappointed in her. "Hyuga has no need of a weak family member." he said as he walked away. Hinata sat there crying as her mother ran towards her.

The next day, Hiashi and Hinata were sparring again. Hiashi was grinding his teeth in anger. Nothing had changed since yesterday. "Hah! Hah!" Hiashi watched his daughter. "Sloppy." He thought. Hiashi jabbed Hinata twice in the shoulders causing her arm to go limp. "Ah!" she cried in pain. Tears were already in her eyes. "Otou-sama…?" she whimpered. Hiashi didn't stop there. He slammed his palm into her stomach causing her to go flying in the air. She cried out in pain as she hit the ground.

"Get up." Hiashi said in a stern voice. Hinata struggled to get up. Hiashi walked over to Hinata. "Otou-sama…?" Hinata whimpered again looking up at her father. Hiashi kicked Hinata in the stomach causing her to lose her breath and sent her flying again. Hinata hit the ground crying, coughing up blood. Hinata!" her mother cried running towards her. Hiashi walked away ignoring the two. "We will resume your training tomorrow."

*End Flashback*

Hinata just asked "Will Hanabi and my mother be coming along with me?" Tsunade shook her head. "Hanabi still needs to complete her training as a Genin and I'm sure Haruka would want to stay and support her just as she supported you." Hinata sat frozen. By some strange miracle, she managed to lift herself from the seat and stumble out of Tsunade's office.

**Hyuga Household -Kunoichi Village**

Hinata walked inside, still shocked about moving to Konoha. "Hinata!" her mother called. Hinata looked up to see her mother holding a bag. "I knew this day would come. I already packed you all your belongings for you." Hinata once again froze remembering that she would be living with her father again. Tears fell from her face. Her mother ran towards her and held her knowing the reason behind Hinata's tears. "I….I don't want to go to Konoha…" she whispered to her mother.

"Hinata. Look at me Hinata." Hinata looked into her mother's eyes. "It's going to be alright. You are not the same little girl you were 11 years ago. You are strong and powerful." Hinata nodded taking in her mother's words. "The fact that you are already a Jonin is proof of your strength. Your father can't hurt you anymore." Haruka brought Hinata's face closer to her chest. "Don't forget that most importantly you have friends who love and would die to protect you." Hinata nodded once more as she lay in her mother's arms and fell asleep.

**Path to Konoha**

Hinata fingered the necklace her mother had given her.

*Flashback*

"Hinata. Take this." Her mother said placing a small item in her hands. Hinata stared at the small necklace. It had a simple metal chain but at the end was a blue turquoise butterfly made of what seemed like glass. "Oka-sama…" Hinata whispered. She moved to give it back but her mother stopped her. "Whenever you feel down or you begin to doubt yourself, then hold this and think of me. Think of what I said to you last night." Hinata nodded. "Now go Hinata. Your friends are waiting for you." She slipped the necklace under her shirt. She quickly hugged her mother and said "I'll miss you…"

Haruka smiled. "Don't worry Hinata. We'll come as soon as Hanabi finishes her training. We won't be separated for long." As they released each other, Hinata looked at Hanabi who looked like she would begin crying at any moment. "Are you going to cry now, you big baby?" Hinata joked. "No!" Hanabi sniffled. "Take care of Mom now, K?" Hinata said walking away. Hanabi wiped her face unwilling to let her sister see her tears.

*End Flashback*

Hinata placed the necklace under her shirt. She took a deep breath. "It's ok Hinata. Don't be afraid. Mother's right. You're not the same little girl you were 11 years ago." She thought to herself thinking about her father, Hiashi Hyuga.

**Konoha**

Inoichi Yamanaka was pacing back and forth. "Where are they?" he wondered nervously. "They should have been here by now!" He gasped. "What…what if something happened to them? Gah! I'm going to go find them!"

"Calm now Inoichi." Said Haruno Norio. "They'll be fine, I'm sure of it." Inoichi turned around. "Calm down? I haven't seen my daughter for 11 years, 5 months, 14 days, 7 hours and 34 seconds!" *gasp* "What…what if she doesn't recognize me? What…what if she forgot all about me! " Norio sighed.

"Have a bit more faith in them." said TenTen's father. "They are our daughters after all. I'm sure they've all grown into young fine capable women." Temari's father nodded agreeing with him. Hiashi stood there silently ignoring them all.

The girls soon came within seeing distance of Konoha. "Look there it is." said Ino looking at the gate. Looking closer she saw her father walking back and forth. Unable to control herself anymore, she cried "Dad!"and ran towards him. "Hey wait up!" the rest cried eager to see their own fathers whom they had not seen in years. "Girls will be girls." Their mothers chuckled as they watched their daughter run away. Only Hinata remained. Tsunade and Shizune both looked at her concerned.

Inoichi turned around at the sound of his daughter's voice. "Ino?" For a moment he saw a vision of a five year old Ino running towards him. "Ino!" he cried. Tears were falling down his face. He smiled happily thinking that she was still his baby girl and that she hadn't changed one bit in eleven whole years. But as they got closer, his vision of the five year old Ino running towards him disappeared was replaced with a 16 year old Ino running towards him. His jaw dropped. "Ino?" he cried shocked. "Dad!" Ino screamed jumping on her father.

Hinata watched as the rest of the families reunited. She walked towards her father who was expressionless. "Otou-sama." She said bowing her head. Hiashi said nothing and turned around. Everyone watched quietly as Hinata simply followed her father back home. "Hinata…" Sakura whispered in concern.

**Hyuga Household – Konoha **

Hinata stood nervously in front of her father in her combat form. Not even five minutes home and she was already being tested by her father. "Byakugan!" Hinata breathed in and out. "I can do this." She said to herself. Hiashi jumped back surprised as Hinata made the first move. She instantly began a full scale attack on her father. Sweat dropped from Hiashi as he ducked left and right from Hinata's attack. Of course, that was only because he didn't have byakugan activated. "Byakugan!" he said.

Minutes passed as Hiashi continued to assess Hinata's performance. "Sloppy." He thought. He aimed a low kick at her feet hoping to see what kind of reaction she would have. Exhausted, she saw the kick but was unable to dodge and was lifted into air for a moment until she fell to the ground.

She got back up and continued her attack. Hiashi frowned. He slammed his palm into her stomach causing her to lose her breath for a moment. However, he didn't wait for her to recover. He used his foot to kick her across the practice floor. Hinata stayed down coughing. Hiashi sighed thinking that Hinata would have had more to show. He watched her as she struggled to get up. He longed to walk over and comfort her as any other normal father, but he was the head of the Hyuga clan. He could not afford to show her any kindness as long as she remained weak in the eyes of her fellow clansmen.

Hinata felt a sense of déjà vu. As she looked up she saw her father walking away. Hinata looked down disappointed thinking that she had failed to receive her father's recognition. "Hinata!" Hinata looked and saw Sakura running towards her. "Tsunade wants us all to meet up at Yakiniku. You hungry?" Hinata looked down as her stomach growled. "Yeah…sure…"

**Yakiniku – The BBQ **

At Yakiniku there was a long line of people waiting outside. The girls moaned. "What? There's a line? I'm so hungry!" Tsunade paid no attention to the line and walked straight in. "Wait…Tsunade-sama, there's a line." Tsunade said nothing only waving her hand telling them to follow her. A waitress walked towards them. "Sorry but the wait time is 45 minutes. Please wait outside." Tsunade edged closer to the waitress. "We actually have a reservation with someone already." "Oh?" whispered the waitress. "Godaime Hokage, Jiraiya." Tsunade whispered into the waitress's ear. She nodded and said "Right this way then." The girls were wondering what Tsunade was whispering about but paid no attention to it. All that they knew is that they didn't have to wait in line. "Let's eat!" the girls cried.

As the girls turned around the corner, they saw Jiraiya, Neji, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba and Sai all sitting at a table. "You!" everyone seemed to cry pointing fingers. Tsunade smiled expecting this. However, what she had not expected was to see Kiba and Choji. She grabbed Jiraiya by the ear. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" she seemed to growl. She turned back to everyone. "Minna. Feel free to sit down and start without us!"

Hinata watched as Tsunade drag Jiraiya around the corner. "Hey." said a voice. She looked back to see Kiba looking at her. "I'm Kiba. What's your name." he said as he inched closer to her. "Hi-Hi-Hinata…"she managed to say while resisting the urge to break his face.

Sakura watched as everyone seemed to couple up. TenTen was trying to get closer to Neji who in turn seemed like he was trying to escape. Shikamaru and TenTen seemed to be arguing over something while Ino just watched Sai paint in his book. Even Hinata was getting some action although it looked like she wasn't enjoying it. She sighed "Which leaves me with…" she stared at Choji who was too busy paying attention to the meat to pay any attention to her.

Tsunade swung Jiraiya by the ear. "Ow! What was that for?" She pointed a finger in the direction of the Choji and Kiba. "I didn't ask for those two! What happened to those two ANBU guys from last time." Jiraiya shrugged his shoulders. "They're busy. Why do you think I entered those two in the tournament instead?" Tsunade poked a finger into his chest. "Jiraiya. I'm not going to have you ruin everything -."

"Ruin what?" Sakura asked. Both Jiraiya and Tsunade jumped. "Nothing, nothing." They both laughed nervously. Sakura frowned. Tsunade noticed her leaving. "Sakura? Where are you going?" Sakura just shrugged. "I'm… not really hungry." She lied. Hinata seeing her chance to escape jumped to. "Yeah…me neither! Let's go Sakura." "Wait you two!" Tsunade cried as the two ran out of the restaurant. She turned to Jiraiya. "It's all your fault that this is a failure!"

"Well, it not a complete failure…"Jiraiya said point at the rest of the group. Tsunade sighed. "C'mon, let's go eat."

**Streets of Konoha **

Hinata's and Sakura's stomachs were rumbling as they walked in the street. "Ugh…I'm so hungry…maybe we shouldn't have left…" Sakura complained. Hinata nodded her head in agreement. Suddenly they smelled something. They followed the smell to a small ramen shop. "Ichiraku?"

The two walked in. "Welco-."Naruto started to say. Sakura watched as he stared at Hinata. "Wha-What can I get you two fine ladies?" Two customers who were already there complained "Yo. Naruto? What about us? We were here first." Naruto gave them a small wave with his hand. "Don't worry, Sasuke's got you guys. Right Sasuke?"

"You doob. It's first come, first serve. That's the rules."

"Yeah, Yeah. You and your rules." Naruto turned his attention back to Hinata and Sakura. "So what can I get you?" Sakura stared at the menu unsure of what to get not knowing what was good and what was bad. "Don't worry Sakura. I'll order for you." She turned to Naruto. "Two Miso Ramen please."

Naruto clutched his chest. "A girl who loves Miso Ramen? I think I'm in love?" he joked. "What's your name miss?" she asked smiling. Hinata frowned. This guy was starting to piss her off. Sasuke threw a book at Naruto. "Ow!" he said "C'mon doob. We've got orders to fill."

Hinata sighed. Sakura stared at her. "Hinata. Do you got something against men? Hinata turned to her shocked. "No. Why?"

"Well it looks like every guy that you meet, well…it seems like you always want to smash their face in."

"What? I do not -." Hinata started to defend herself. "Oh my god…" Hinata realized. "I…I think you're right…"

Sakura stared at her. "Think that it might have something to do with your dad?" she asked. "What? Why do you say that?" Sakura stared at Hinata wondering. An awkward silence occurred. Hoping to break the silence, Sakura said "Can you believe that we met those guys again? What a coincidence, right?"

Hinata moaned. "Don't even get me started." Oh?" Sakura asked. "Not liking the attention you're getting from dog boy?" They both laughed. "Speaking of meeting people, think we'll ever see those two again?"

"Oh I hope so. And when we do it's payback time."

"You said it." Sakura said giving Hinata a high five. "But you know, it's going to be hard to find those two."

"Hmm?"

Sakura took a sip from her her tea. "Well think about it. WE don't even know what they look like. All we know is that one has blond hair while the other has like -." Sasuke came back and handed two bowls of ramen to the gentleman next to them. "Two beef ramen." Sakura stared at Sasuke. "long, spiky black hair…" Sasuke saw her staring at him. "Hmm?" She imagined Hebi's ANBU mask on him. "You!" She screamed. She pulled him over the counter and began to punch him.

"Sakura! What are you doing?" Hinata cried. "His hair!" she said stopping momentarily to show Hinata. Long, spiky hair just like Hebi's!" Hinata stared at Sasuke thinking that she was right. "Sasuke! What's going on!" Naruto yelled. Hinata stared at him and imagined Kitsune's mask on him. "Gah! I'll kill you!" she screamed as she too pulled him over the counter.

The two gentleman sitting next to them jumped up. "Someone! Someone call the cops!" The guy next to him asked "What's a cop?" "I don't know. Just-just get help!" Then two men walked in. "Naruto, Sasuke. Wanna hook us up? We're starving!" they laughed. Everyone froze. Sakura and Hinata stared at Kitsune and Hebi who in turn stared back. "Oops…wrong restaurant." They said as they ran away. Both Hinata and Sakura stared at each other, then at Naruto and Sasuke and then ran outside. But at that point, both Kitsune and Hebi were gone.


	3. The Genin

Chp.3 – The Genin

**Hokage's Office**

Both Hinata and Sakura sat in front of both Tsunade and Jiraiya. They were both looking down at their feet shifting nervously in their seats.

Jiraiya sighed. "So you're telling me that you attacked these two gentlemen…" he pointed to Naruto and Sasuke who were bruised and black eyed. "Because they had the same hair as my two ANBU?" Both Hinata and Sakura looked nervously at each other with a pained expression on their face.

"H-Hai…"

Tsunade sighed. "What am I going to do with you two? I thought I trained you two to be better than this." Jiraiya looked at the two. "Normally the punishment for attacking two civilians would be imprisonment." Both girls gulped.

"But due to the generosity of these two gentleman, instead you'll be attending to all their basic needs. Whatever they may be." Jiraiya chuckled stressing out the last sentence. Tsunade smacked him on the head. "Get your head out of the gutter." She looked at both the girls. 'Don't worry. You won't be doing anything dirty. "

"Unless you want to of course." Jiraiya said before getting smacked on the head again.

"You two will just be doing basic errands for…about two months."

"TWO MONTHS!" Hinata cried.

Tsunade frowned. "It's either that or two months in prison." Hinata bit her lip.

Jiraiya sighed. "Alright, you two can leave." He said pointing at Naruto and Sasuke. When the two left, Jiraiya started speaking again. "Now, it's not part of your punishment but you're to both report to training ground three at 0700 hours to meet your Genin."

"I thought you said this wasn't a punishment…"Sakura whined.

"Excuse me?" Jiraiya asked confused.

"You said this wasn't a punishment…and yet you're sticking us with a bunch of Genin? Why?"

"To…go on missions? He seemed to ask wondering if she was being serious.

"Missions? What for?"

Jiraiya couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Tsunade, did you tell your Kunoichi about anything on how we operate here in Konoha?" Tsunade just whistled and pretended that she didn't hear him. He sighed. "Looks like I'll have to assign some babysitters." He muttered grabbing a clipboard. "Let's see who's free?" He smiled. "Kitsune. Hebi."

Both appeared instantly by Jiraiya's side. The two girls started to get up but were stopped by Tsunade. "Hinata! Sakura!" The two turned to see Tsunade glaring at them and instantly sat back down.

"How do you two feel about babysitting these two for their next mission?" Both Kitsune and Hebi looked at Hinata and Sakura who were glaring at them. "We'd love to." They said.

"It's settled then." Report to Training ground three at 0700 hours. Dismissed." Both ANBU disappeared. Hinata and Sakura grumbled angrily as they headed for the door.

"Hinata. Sakura." Tsunade called. The two turned around. "I don't want any trouble this time you hear me? None." The two nodded before leaving , closing the door behind them.

Jiraiya sighed leaning back in his chair. "This year's group is so troublesome. Especially those two." Tsunade nodded. "But never mind them." she said coming closer to him. "Where were we?" she asked seductively. Jiraiya smiled as she sat on his lap and pressed her lips against his.

**Training Ground Three**

The six boys waited impatiently stomping their feet. "They're late!" one cried. "I can't believe this!" We're already Genin! They should be treating us with the proper respect now!" "Yeah!" the rest agreed.

"When they get here, I'm going to punch their face in!" "Yeah!"

Both Hinata and Sakura appeared surprising all six boys. "Sorry we're late. We're your sensei's Hinata and Sakura." The boy's jaw dropped.

They all started whispering between themselves. "They're hot!"

"Our sensei's are girls?"

"Who's face were you going to punch?"

"I never said that!"

"You're late."

Everyone looked to see both Kitsune and Hebi sitting on the three wood posts. The boys had already drawn their kunai. "Who –." One of the boys started to ask before Sakura stopped them. "Sorry, we –."

"Just hurry up and get your teams separated." Hebi said coldly. The boys glared at Hebi and Kitsune.

After separating the boys into two groups, Hinata sat quietly in front of her team unsure of what to do next. Kitsune took notice and sighed. "Why don't you start by introducing yourselves?" he said trying to get them talking. "How?" the boys asked. Kitsune face palmed. "Well don't ask me, ask her." He said pointing to Hinata. "She's your sensei." The boys turned to her.

"Well…uh…why don't we start by listing our names? Yeah and then we can say our…um…likes and dislikes…" Hinata tried to say. The boys still looked at her still awaiting further instructions. She sighed. "Well…uh…I'll start…My name is Hyuga Hinata…I like miso ramen….I hate…" she thought for a moment. "Blond haired jerks." Kitsune chuckled. "My dream? I…I think I might want to have couple of kids…" She went on and on about her her dream family until she noticed her three genin staring at her. Embarrassed, she pointed to a boy with a dog in his lap. "Why don't you start?"

The dog barked. "My name's Hibiki Inuzuka. I like playing with my best friend, Haru." Haru barked again at the sound of his name. "I dislike eating onions and I hate cats. My dream is to be as good as a tracker as my big brother, Kiba." Hinata flinched at the name.

"Achoo!" Hinata turned to the boy who had just sneezed. "uh…my name is…achoo!" Hinata looked confused. "Your name is achoo?" The boy wiped his nose with the sleeve of his shirt. "No…my name is Udon." Hinata nodded signaling for his to continue. "I…I like solving math problems…I don't really dislike anything…my dream…". Udon turned to Sakura's group and looked at Hebi. "My dream…is to be cool like that guy!" Hibiki burst out laughing. "Haha! You want to be like that guy? You don't even know him, not to mention you just met him."

"Hey! Shut up Hibiki! Don't make fun of Udon!" Hibiki turned to the last boy. "Oh yeah? You wanna fight?"

"Hey, hey you two. No fighting." Hinata said breaking the two up. Sighing she said, "So…what about you? Tell us about yourself." The boy who had shouted at Hibiki turned and grinned. "My name's Konohamaru Sarutobi! I like playing jokes on people and learning new jutsu's.

"I hate jerks who make fun of other people!" he said turning to Hibiki. "My dream is to one day be hokage!" The group looked at Konohamaru. "Yeah…that's not going to happen.' Hibiki said . 'What did you say?" Hinata sighed as her team started arguing again.

"Alright, guys let's stop fighting. We have a very important mission that we have to do." She said.

"And what mission would that be?" Kitsune asked. Hinata was confused. "The one that Jiraiya-sama asked us to do yesterday…

"Which is?" Kitsune asked. "I…I don't know." Hinata said realizing that she didn't know what mission her team was supposed to do. "Exactly. You don't know. Which means what?" Hinata could tell that Kitsune was enjoying mocking her. Holding back her anger she said "I don't know…Tsunade-sama never really explained the whole…mission thing that you guys do here in Konoha…"

Kitsune sighed. "Here in Konoha, missions are separated in various groups ranging from S-rank to D-rank. Normally, Jonin like you would be taking on missions like A-rank and lower. However, because you have a genin team, you will be doing mostly D-rank missions. In order to do a mission, you first have to go to the hokage where he assigns you a mission. Basically, he tells you what you're supposed to do to complete the mission. Once you fulfill those conditions, you come back, file a report and you're done. Make sense?"

Hinata nodded. "Good. So what do we do now?" Hinata thought for a moment. "We…go see the hokage to get our mission." KItsune nodded. "Good girl. I knew you'd learn it eventually." Hinata faked a smile and laughed.

**Path to Konoha**

The two teams marched to Konoha. Hibiki looked at Hinata's back. "So this is that girl my bro fell for." When Kiba had returned from the Tournament in the fire capital, the only thing he could talk about was his black-haired beauty. "I know! If I can learn more about Hinata-sensei, and tell my bro…"

Hibiki eagerly asked, "Hinata-sensei. Why were you and Sakura-sensei late?"

"Well, we were putting make-up on when we lost track of time."

"Tch, typical."

Hinata turned and looked at Kitsune. "What's that supposed to mean?" Kitsune shrugged his shoulders. "Oh nothing. It's just good to know that the great Tsunade-sama teaches her ninja how to use makeup before teaching them anything about the village."

"That's not true!" Hinata defended.

"Oh? Is that why I'm here babysitting you four? Making sure you all don't get into any trouble? " Hinata bit her lip knowing that he was right. "The great slug princess is simply just a shadow of her former self."

"Take that back!" she yelled getting up. Sakura's group looked over at Hinata's shout. Hinata could stand Kitsune insulting her, but insulting her sensei was crossing the line. Kitsune smiled under his mask. "Make me."

Hinata charged at him. "This blond haired jerk has been a thorn in my side for too long!" she thought.

"Since your sensei never bothered to teach you anything, I guess it's up to me." Hinata drew a kunai and slashed at him.

"Shinobi Law #25: A ninja must never show emotion or allow it to dictate his or her actions." He said as he dodged her.

She slashed again but Kitsune moved to the side, grabbed her arm and flipped her over. She fell to the ground while Kitsune placed himself over her body and pinned her arms down with one hand. She struggled to get out of his grasp. "Let me go you asshole!" Kitsune frowned. Everyone watching was unsure of what to do.

She was about to call him a bunch of other names but she shut herself up as Kitsune placed his Tanto at the base of her neck. Her eyes widened as she felt the cold steel of the blade touch her skin. "Shinobi Law #46: Attacking a fellow ninja is punishable…" He leaned closer to her face. He could her breathing quicken as her heart beated faster. "By death." He whispered into her ear.

She froze. She could feel a deathly aura emanating from him as he said these words.

"Multi shadow clone shuriken!"

Kitsune jumped out of the way as the shuriken whizzed by. "You can't do that to our sensei!" yelled Konohamaru. "Let's get this guy!" Hibiki was raring for a fight but Udon was still hesitant. "Uh…wait guys…should we really try to take this guy on…"

Konohamaru grinned. "This guy's a chump. I eat guys like him for breakfast."

Kitsune gave a satisfied sigh as he cracked his neck. Looking at both Hibiki and Konohamaru he said, "Looks like you two didn't learn anything in the academy. Didn't I just remind you what rule number #7 was?"

"You can take your rules and shove them -." Hibiki started to say before Kitsune body flickered in front of him and kicked him in the stomach sending him skidding on his back a couple of meters.

"Those who break the rules are trash." Kitsune said. Hibiki glared at him clutching his stomach. "What'd you say your name was? Inuzuka?" Hibiki nodded. "Well I guess that explains it. You're just as stupid as your big brother, Kiba."

Hibiki was pissed. "C'mon Haru. Let's get this guy." Haru whined refusing to move. "Haru…"

Kitsune laughed. "Look. Your mutt has more sense than you." Hibiki wanted to kill this guy. Not only did he insult his big brother but also his best friend. "I'll kill you!" Hibiki tried to punch Kitsune but managed only to get thin air. Kitsune body flickered behind him holding his hands in the sign of the tiger. Both Hinata and Sakura were worried. "Sign of the tiger? Oh no…He's going to use a fire jutsu. He'll kill him!"

Hebi smiled realizing Kitsune's ploy. "Hidden Secret Taijutsu Technique! 1000 years of death!" Kitsune yelled slamming his fingers up Hibiki's ass. "GGGAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Hibiki cried as he soared threw the air. Everyone paused with a sweat drop on their face.

"Alright. Now that's finished, I think it's time we see the hokage about your mission before we're late." Kitsune said. Hebi chuckled.

**Konoha Mission Room**

Jiraiya looked at the two teams before him. On one side, Sakura's team looked very presentable. Clean, orderly. On the other side, Hinata's team was dirty and very tired looking. "It's probably better not to ask." He muttered to himself.

"Well, how about fetching Tora? The fire daimyo's wife's lost cat?" he asked the two teams.

"No way!" all the boys cried. "Give us a mission that's worth our time." Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "Every mission is important. We -."

The boys moaned. "Yeah, yeah. We've heard it before. C'mon give us something exciting!" Jiraiya sat in his chair unsure of what to do. He didn't want to assign Hinata and Sakura a hard job for their first mission, but even he had to agree that chasing cats around was not a very productive activity for a ninja."Kitsune. What do you think?"

Kitsune folded his arms. "Well, their Jonin's a joke." Hinata grinded her teeth in anger as he said this. Kitsune looked at the three genin. "Personally, I think that these three punks should go back to the academy." The three genin eye's widened, fearful of going back to the academy. "But I feel that a significantly difficult mission is required to properly evaluate whether they are all fit to be ninja."

Jiraiya sighed. "Well presently there are no -." He paused. "Hokage-sama, We've just received a new mission request." Iruka said handing Jiraiya a paper. "Well…looks like you're in luck. We've just received a request to bodyguard a certain person back to the land of wave. You're first C-rank mission."

The boys cheered! "Yeah!"

"So who we protecting? A lord? A famous singer? A princess?"

Jiraiya waved at them trying to calm them down. "You'll find out. Iruka can you tell our guest to come inside?"

"Hai."

Jiraiya turned to Hinata and Sakura. "Since it's your first times as squad leaders, both your teams will be co-escorting your client." The door opened. "Ah look. Here he comes now." Everyone turned to see an old man with a sake bottle in his hand. "Eh? What's this? They're all just a bunch of snot nosed brats."

The boy's jaws dropped in disappointment. "This is Tazuna. You'll be escorting him back to his home back in the Land of Waves."

END – CHP.3

AN: Ok. I'm sorry if this chapter is a little bit confusing. When I read it over, even I thought it was a little confusing. But I'm really lazy and I don't really feel like writing everything over again. I'll probably fix it in the future but for now this is CHP.3. Yes. The next chapter will be about the teams escorting Tazuna to the land of wave so for all of you Haku and Zabuza fans, read the next chapter because they will be making an appearance.


	4. The Demon of the Mist Pt1

**Tournament of Fire**

**Chp.4 The Demon in the Mist **

**Path to Land of Waves**

The group walked in a simple formation. Tazuna walked in the middle of the group while Hinata's team consisting of Konohamaru, Udon and Hibiki guarded Tazuna's left flank wjhile on the other side guarding Tazuna's right flank walked Sakura's team, Daisuke Fukui, Goro Akamichi and Kei Sato. Guarding the rear walked Hinata and Sakura who were scanning the trees for enemies.

Tazuna unable to keep his balance stumbled into one of the genin. "Hey, watch it you geezer!" cried Hibiki. Pushed back into the center of the formation, Tazuna just hiccupped in reply. Hibiki held his nose. "Ugh, you reek!" With his heightened sense of smell, Hibiki could smell the alcohol emanating from his body.

Kei sighed. "Why couldn't we have protected a princess instead of some old drunk geezer?" Tazuna looked away from his sake bottle and stared at the genin. "Why couldn't I have been protected by some actually ninja instead of six snot nosed brats and two little girls?"

Hinata and Sakura pretended not to hear that. "Hey, we are ninja! See these headbands? They're proof of our skill and prowess." Konohamaru cried.

"Yeah, and I'm actually the daimyo of the wave country." Tazuna retorted.

The genin were flabbergasted. "What? No way!" Tazuna stared at them."Bwahahaha!" he laughed. "What's so funny? The genin asked. Udon whispered to Konohamaru. "I think he was making fun of us…"

Tazuna grabbed his stomach. "Not only are you all just a bunch of snot nosed brats, but you're all as smart as a rock!" Tazuna laughed. Konohamaru was about to let this guy have it when Hinata cried out his name.

"Konohamaru!" Konohamaru looked back at Hinata. "Our job is to protect man remember? We are not allowed to hurt him at all." Konohamaru puffed his mouth and lips. "Fine."

Turning to Tazuna, Hinata assured him, "Don't worry Tazuna-san, we'll protect you at all costs, even with our lives if we need to." Tazuna took a sip of his sake. "I'd worry less if those two gentlemen from before were with us right." Hinata sighed.

*Flashback*

**Konoha – Main Gate**

The group waited as Tazuna stumbled over to them. "C'mon you geezer, Hurry up!" Tazuna simply hiccupped in reply. Kitsune and Hebi dragged both Hinata and Sakura from the group. "Alright ladies, as squad leaders it's your job to take care of your teams as best you can and at the same time complete your objective, which is by the way what?"

"Deliver Tazuna-san to the land of wave." Sakura answered him. Kitsune nodded. "That's right. Nothing more. Simply protect him until you reach the land of wave and return immediately back to Konoha. Understood?" he asked directing the question to Hinata. She nodded. "Good. Now since this is your mission, Hebi and I will be taking no part in this."

Sakura had a worried look on her face. "But what if -." Kitsune held up a hand to stop her. "We'll be close by watching your progress. Besides, this is only a C-Rank mission. The worst you'll face are bandits. But if push comes to shove, one of us will surely jump in." Kitsune looked at Hebi who seemed to be paying no attention. "At least I will." Kitsune reassured the girls. Hebi chuckled. "Alright let's go." As Hebi disappeared Kitsune approached Hinata. "Don't worry Hinata-chan. I'll make sure to rescue you no matter what." Hinata smiled sarcastically and gave him the finger. Chuckling, Kitsune hurried after Hebi and disappeared.

*End Flashback*

Hinata faked a smile towards Tazuna. "Those two have their own mission, but like I said before we'll protect you at all costs." Tazuna simply ignored her and went back to drinking his sake. Hinata suddenly turned her head and looked at a bush that was shaking left and right. The entire group followed suit.

Close by Kitsune and Hebi sat concealed in a tree. "Oh? Did they finally notice?"

The bush continued shaking. Sakura edged closer to Hinata. "Hinata." She whispered. Hinata nodded. Byakugan! Looking into the bush, Hinata relaxed. Seeing Hinata relaxed, Sakura asked questionably, "What do you see?" The bush stopped shaking for a moment then out popped a snow haired rabbit. Everyone sighed seeing the rabbit relaxed. However, Haru was still growling. Taking notice, Hinata expanded her vision another 100 meters in a 360 degree area. "Come out! We know that you're there!"

The group heard chuckling and snickering. All around them, bandits with swords and axes appeared from their hiding places. "Well, well looks like they found us boys." The bandits snickered. The man continued talking. "Leave the old man and all your valuables if you want to live." The man licked his lips. "You two ladies can stay too. You two can…entertain us." He chuckled. The bandits began whistling at Hinata and Sakura. "Fat chance." The two girls thought.

The man raised his sword at the group. "Now surrender or -." He never finished. Both Konohamaru and Hibiki planted their foot into the man's face. "Let's get these guys!"

"Yeah!"

Kitsune and Hebi laughed as they watched the genin in action. "Well it's about time." As they finished laughing, Hebi stared at two particular bandits. "Hopefully, our two kunoichi pick up on that." Hebi said pointing to the mysterious bandits. "Hmm?" Kitsune mumbled. Looking at the two bandits himself, he smiled. "Oh, very nice. Tricky those two are. I would have expected nothing less from you, being able to through almost any genjutsu." Hebi stared at Kitsune. "What do you mean 'almost'?" Kitsune sighed. "Aw man, here we go again."

The genin had just finished tying up the bandits when Sakura saw that there were two bandits left. Sakura turned to Hinata with a puppy face look on her face. Hinata sighed. "Alright, fine. Go ahead, I'll watch over Tazuna-san and the genin." Sakura jumped for joy. "Alright! I owe you one, Hinata!"

Approaching the two bandits, Sakura pulled on her gloves. "So, which one of you wants to die first?" she asked casually. The two bandits looked at each other and smiled maliciously. Releasing their transformation, a fog of smoke surrounded them. "Henge?" Sakura thought as she covered her face. Then two figures jumped out from the fog. "Shit!" Sakura said as she saw the two figures jump towards HInata. "Hinata!"

Hinata who had been watching over the genin turned in Sakura's direction. She yelped in surprise as she felt her limbs become constricted by a metal chain. Looking at her attackers, Hinata saw that they were nearly identical both wearing similar masks, cloaks, and clothing. She saw that the chain wrapped around her was connected to their gauntlets and that they wore kirigakure headbands. "Mist ninja? What are they doing here?" One of the mist ninja looked into Hinata's eyes. "One down, seven to go." He snickered.

Had Hinata waited a second longer, she would have been torn to shreds. Expelling chakra from all the chakra points on her body, the chain shattered into a dozen pieces as the two mist ninja tried to pull the chain. With both the mist ninja shocked as they looked at their shattered chain, turning to the ninja on her left, Hinata crouched down into a stance. "Eight trigrams, Sixty-four palms!"

Although it was a somewhat flawed jutsu allowing her to only attack one of her attackers it got the job done. Seeing his partner go down in a flurry of blows from the blue haired kunoichi the remaining mist ninja attempted to jump back however, he was stopped as he felt the chain on the end of his gauntlet snag onto something. He saw Sakura holding the end of chain.

"Get over here!" Sakura yelled as she pulled on the chain pulling the mist ninja along with it. Letting go of the chain, Sakura used her free hand to smash her fist into the ninja's face. She smiled a small grin as she felt the man's mask split open and the blood vessels under his face rupture.

The genin, who had been watching the whole time, huddled together as they watched their two sensei get up from their "kill" and walk towards them. If anyone else had seen Hinata and Sakura, they would have seen only two beautiful angels but in the eyes of the genin, they saw two murderous demons with long fangs and glowing pink and purple eyes.

"Hibiki-kun, Konohamaru-kun." Hinata called. "Hai!" the two cried in unison. Smiling at them she asked, "Could you boys tie these two up for me please?"

"Hai!"

Kitsune took out a small orange notebook. "Note to self, do not piss off Hinata-chan and Sakura-chan." Closing the notebook, Kitsune looked at Hebi who was taking a snooze. "I'll let him figure it out the hard way." He said chuckling to himself. Hebi opened his eyes and got up. He could feel a deathly chakra pattern somewhere in the forest. "Kitsune." Kitsune nodded. "Yeah, I know. I felt it too. Looks like we might have to join the party soon."

After Konohamaru and Hibiki finished tying up the two mist ninja, Hinata and Sakura started interrogating them. "Who are you and why are you attacking us?" The mist ninja simply said nothing and only stared at Tazuna. Hinata tracking their line of sight, turned to Tazuna. "Tazuna-san, do you know why these two men attacked us?" He looked down at his feet and said nothing.

Turning back to the two mist ninja, Hinata grinned a malicious smile. Sakura turned to the genin. "You boys might want to close your eyes and cover your ears." which the boys instantly did. This caused one of the mist ninja to panic. "We were ordered to kill the old man!" The group turned and looked at Tazuna who a pained look on his face. "Nii-san!" the other mist ninja cried.

"Who ordered you to kill him? Tell us!" Sakura cried. The mist ninja shook his head. "If I tell you, he'll kill us!"

"I was going to kill you anyway." said a voice. The entire group turned and scanned the forest for the speaker. The genin and Sakura gathered in a circle around Tazuna while Hinata got closer to the two mist ninja to protect them. "Who are you? Come out!" The forest had gone deathly quiet and all they could hear was a man chuckling evilly.

One of the mist ninja started shaking. "He's here! He's going to kill us!" Hinata turned to the ninja. "Quiet. He's not going to hurt you." Suddenly Hinata shivered as she felt a deathly aura come over her. "It's the same." She thought remembering Kitsune's deathly aura the other day at the training ground.

Suddenly Hinata froze. "Does that mean you're going to protect them?" asked the man behind her. Hinata looked back and saw a man wearing a bandaged mask on his face. He wore a kirigakure headband and wielded a huge broad sword. "Don't make me laugh, you can't even protect yourself." He said swinging his sword in a slicing motion at her head.

Fear had frozen her and her limbs refused to obey her commands. She watched as the blade swing at her. "So…this is how it ends…" she whispered as she closed her eyes resigning herself to her fate. As the blade came down in a cutting motion, Kitsune appeared out of nowhere and pushed her down with his body just in time for the blade to pass by over his head. Unfortunately as the blade missed Kitsune and Hinata, it decapitated both the mist ninja who were also frozen with fear.

The mysterious ninja growled. He had wanted to kill the bluish-black haired kunoichi as well but killing both his original targets was just as equally rewarding. "Hinata-sensei!" cried her genin as they ran toward her. Sakura stopped them. She knew danger when she saw it and the fact that Kitsune had jumped into the fray when he had specifically said that he wouldn't unless he needed to, was already proof that this was no ordinary enemy.

As Kitsune picked Hinata up and leapt out of the man's gigantic blade's reach, Hinata found herself staring at the Kitsune's face. Although she could only see his mask, she tried to imagine the face of the man who had just saved her life even when she herself had given up on living.

As his feet touched the ground, Kitsune noticed Hinata staring at him. He returned the favor by staring back into her pale lavender eyes. As Hinata looked through the eye slits of his mask, she felt her mouth open as she found herself lost in his deep blue eyes.

"I told you I would save you no matter what." Kitsune said. Snapping out of the trance that she was in, she blushed as she remembered the promise he had made her in front of the gate and how immaturely she had reacted about it.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" The man said grabbing both their attention. "An elite Konoha ANBU? I'm honored. Now if you would be so kind as to hand over the old man, It'd be much obliged."

"What does the Demon of the Mist want with an old man? Or should I say, Zabuza Momochi? Zabuza smiled. "Ah so you know of me? Well in any case, why I want him is a secret."

"I guess I'll just have to beat the information out from you then, won't I?" Kitsune asked. Zabuza chuckled. "You can try."

Creating a shadow clone, Kitsune handed Hinata over to the clone. "Take her back to the others." He ordered. Hinata struggled to get up. "I can walk by myself you know!" she said. She grimaced as Kitsune poked her in the forehead. "Just sit back and relax." He looked back at the clone who nodded and left to return to the group.

As the clone placed Hinata down, the clone turned his attention to the rest of the group. "Do not interfere. Hebi and I will handle this. You may want to step a couple meters." The clone said before becoming smoke. The group watched as Kitsune and Zabuza stared at each other. "So, should I start?" Zabuza asked holding his blade up in front of him. "After you." Kitsune replied drawing his tanto.


	5. The Demon of the Mist Pt2

**Tournament of Fire**

**CHP.5 Demon of the Mist Pt – 2 **

**AN: Sorry for the long wait everyone. For the oddest of reasons, I had trouble editing this chapter. I had originally planned on making the DEMON OF THE MIST ARC only two parts but due to the amount of content I wanted to include, it will now be separated into three parts. Well anyways hope you guys enjoy this chapter.**

**Path to Land of Wave**

As the clone placed Hinata down, the clone turned his attention to the rest of the group. "Do not interfere. Hebi and I will handle this. You may want to step back a couple meters." The clone said before disappearing into a poof of smoke. The group watched as Kitsune and Zabuza stared at each other. "So, should I start?" Zabuza asked holding his blade up in front of him. "After you." Kitsune replied drawing his tanto.

"It would be my pleasure." A voice said behind him. Kitsune turned his head surprised to see another Zabuza behind him. "When did he…?" His eyes widened as he felt Zabuza's blade cleave him into two. "Kitsune-san!" Hinata cried. However, Kitsune simply burst into a poof smoke and left only a split log in his place.

Hebi watched from the trees, the exchange between Kitsune and Zabuza. He would have jumped in by now but he could sense hiding somewhere in the forest hid one more enemy. Until the enemy appeared, Kitsune would have to handle Zabuza by himself.

Zabuza turned his head to see five shuriken flying towards him. Grabbing the Zabuza clone, Zabuza used him as a shield. As three of the shuriken struck the Zabuza clone, the clone turned to water and fell to the ground. The two shuriken that missed the clone, flew past the real Zabuza and transformed into two Kitsune clones.

"Transformation jutsu? Shadow clones?" Zabuza's eyes widened as he saw the two clones throw a kunai towards his head. However, they were easily knocked down by two senbon. "Zabuza-san, that was careless of you." The group turned in the direction of the speaker. They could see a person wearing a mask standing high in a tree. He had long black hair and wore a bluish green kimono. Zabuza stared at the masked person. "Haku. I thought I said for you not to interfere."

"Apologies, Zabuza-san. I just thought you might like some help." Haku said throwing a dozen senbon at Tazuna and the genin. The genin watched with frozen eyes as the senbon flew towards them. Their gaze had been fixated on the two dead kirigakure ninja's. This wasn't what being a ninja was supposed to be like. Where was the glory? The honor? The only thing they saw were the decapitated bodies and the blood that slowly oozed out of them.

Seeing the genin frozen in place, Hinata and Sakura drew their kunai and knocked the senbon down before they could reach their target. Haku frowned under his mask. "Zabuza-san, those leaf ninja are annoying. I'm going to get rid of them."

"I wouldn't underestimate them if I were you." Haku turned to see Hebi leaing on a tree next to him. "They might surprise you." He pulled out his tanto. "Then again, you'll have to get past me first." Zabuza watched Hebi attack Haku. Then he turned his attention as a voice said "You know. You really should be worrying more about yourself instead of your friend over there." Zabuza looked up to see a dozen Kitsune clones falling towards him. "Hmmf." He grunted swinging his sword cutting through them like butter. Zabuza swung his sword left and right turning the endless waves of Kitsune clones into smoke.

The girls and the genin all watched the battle. Willing his feet to move, Hibiki moved closer to his sensei. "Hinata-sensei, are we going to be alright?" Hinata turned to her student with a concerned look on her face. "Of course. Why wouldn't we be? Both Kitsune-san and Hebi-san are here protecting us." However secretly Hinata was worried. As she watched the battle, she grew less and less sure of herself. Both Kitsune-san and Hebi-san seemed so strong and yet it looked like the two of them were struggling with their opponents.

As the last Kitsune clone disappeared, Zabuza smirked at the real one standing before him. "You're not the only one who can make clones." Kitsune watched as Zabuza created a clone of himself from a puddle of water. "Ah…so that's how he did it." Kitsune figured.

Seeing the real Zabuza jump back and start forming a number of signs, Kitsune raced after him. "Oh no you don't!" he thought. As the Zabuza clone swung his sword at him, he created his own clone who lifted him just high enough of avoid the swinging blade. As he flew in the air past the Zabuza clone, he sliced the clone's throat turning it back into a puddle.

Landing on his feet, he looked at the original Zabuza but cursed himself when he saw that Zabuza had finished his jutsu. "Shit." He muttered. "Suiton! Water Wave!" Zabuza yelled as a torrent of water engulfed Kitsune.

"Sakura, watch Tazuna-san and the genin." Hinata yelled as she ran forward to help Kitsune. "Hinata!" Sakura cried out in concern.

Kitsune gasped for air as he was released from the torrent of water. He struggled to get up but his limbs only shook with exhaustion. Zabuza grinned as he moved closer to Kitsune. "This ends now." He said raising his blade in a executing manner. Suddenly, Hinata jumped into the fray. Putting herself between Kitsune and Zabuza, she spun in a circular motion, "Rotation!". As Zabuza's blade glanced of the circle of chakra that she spun around herself, she stopped her rotation and slammed her palm into Zabuza's right arm.

"Gah!" he cried out as he felt his right arm go dead, dropping his sword. Confident that Zabuza was out of commission, Hinata turned her attention to Kitsune. "Are you alright?" She asked. He nodded, surprised to see Hinata come to his rescue. Then his eyes widened as he saw Zabuza stand up. "You little bitch!" Zabuza cried out swinging his sword at Hinata with his still good left arm.

"Hinata-sensei!" the genin cried seeing their teacher in danger. Time seemed to slow down for Kitsune. "Please let me be in time." He thought pleadingly. With lightning speed, he created a shadow clone. Using his left hand, he pushed Hinata out of the way while the clone formed a glowing ball of chakra in his right hand. Zabuza stared at the blond haired ANBU with wide eyes. Not only was the ANBU inside his guard already, he held a strange blue ball in his hand.

"Rasengan!" Kitsune yelled slamming the blue ball of chakra into Zabuza. "Guahhh!" Zabuza cried out as he felt the mysterious jutsu rip him apart from the inside out and send him flying into a tree with an explosion. Hearing the explosion, Haku turned his head. "Zabuza-san." He whispered concerned.

Forming the proper signs, he turned back to Hebi and yelled out, "Hyoton! Ice Prison!" Hebi watched in surprise as he was surrounded by a box of ice. With the black haired ANBU incapacitated, Haku threw a number of senbon at the black haired Kunoichi sitting on the ground. Kitsune watched as Haku target Hinata. "Hinata!" he cried out, jumping towards her. "Ah!: she cried out in surprise as he grabbed her and rolled out of the way of the senbon. Sakura who could no longer sit still and do nothing ran to the imprisoned Hebi. "Hebi-san! Are you alright?"

"Stand back." He told her. She grew curious as she began to hear what seemed to be a thousand birds all chirping at once. Smash! Sakura covered her face to protect herself from smashed pieces of ice as Hebi burst out of the prison. Haku lifted Zabuza's arm over his shoulder. "Zabuza-san, are you alright?" No answer. As a ninja medical expert, Haku could tell that all the nerves in Zabuza's right arm had been severed and a number of his internal organs had been ruptured. Left untreated, he could die in a matter of minutes.

Lifting Zabuza up, Haku turned his head looking for the source of the mysterious sound of chirping. Looking up, he saw the black haired ANBU charging at him holding what seemed to be electricity in his hand. "Chidori!" Hebi cried out leaping towards his two would be victims. Holding two fingers up, the ground around Haku exploded into a mass of smoke.

Without any vision of his target, Hebi simply struck whatever he could causing the ground to explode. The genin watched wide-eyed at the spectacular display of ninjutsu. As the dust cleared, the genin saw Hebi standing in a crater, the glow of electricity in his hand beginning to fade. "Cool…" they all thought. Tazuna sighed with relief.

As the ninja gathered together, Sakura walked up to Kitsune and slammed her fist into his face. "Sakura-chan!" Hinata cried out in surprise. Sakura stared at Kitsune. "You asshole! Hinata could have died if you had been just a second slower. If you had such a powerful jutsu at your disposal in the first place, why didn't you use that sooner!"

Kitsune got up rubbing his cheek with the back of his hand. "I have my reasons." Sakura's eyes narrowed. Just as she was about throw another punch at Kitsune, Hebi caught her wrist. "Enough. It's one of our rules being an ANBU."

"I've never heard that!" Sakura cried. "Of course you wouldn't have, you're not an ANBU!" Hebi retorted. "Besides, what I'd like to know is why our assailants are after our client." He said gesturing towards Tazuna. Everyone looked at Tazuna waiting for an answer. He only stood there. Kitsune stepped closer. "Tazuna-san. Depending on your answer, we may have to return back to Konoha." Tazuna looked up to Kitsune. "Alright. I'll tell you."

**AN: Alright everyone I'm going to fast forward here. I don't want to admit it but I'm a really lazy writer. I like to keep everything as short as possible. Of course, I'm trying to get rid of this habit but anyways everyone reading should already know why the kirigakure ninja were after Tazuna and if you don't then you obviously haven't read the original series and if that's true then shame on you! BakaDango Vi Britannia commands you! Go read it at once! As for the rest of you Naruto fans we are fast forwarding to the Land of Wave. Night has fallen and our ninja have gathered around the fire to discuss today's battle. **

**Land Of Wave **

The group sat silently around the fire, quietly listening to the crackle of the wood. Both the ANBU watched the genin exchange glances with each other driving to get the other to ask the question they all wanted to ask. "So." Sakura said clapping her hands. "Are you going to tell us why you didn't bother using any ninjutsu until the last moment?" Hebi simply glared at her.

Even with his mask on, she could feel his glare and the intimidation he gave off. "Like I said before, it's an ANBU thing." Seeing Sakura falter, Hinata pressed on for answers. "We deserve to know why. We almost died out there today. If the reason you guys didn't even bother fighting 100% is because you guys wanted to see if you could beat those two without using any ninjutsu well then…" She cracked her knuckles.

"Mmm." The genin agreed nodding their heads. Hebi sighed and laid his back on the ground. "You take this one." He said to Kitsune. "I'm going to sleep, you have first watch." He said turning his back to the others. Kitsune frowned watching his companion fake a snore. Looking back at the others, he saw everyone's eyes on him.

Sighing, he scratched his head. "Members of the ANBU corps are forbidden to use any ninjutsu. Breaking this rule can result in immediate expulsion from the ANBU corps." The entire group burst out talking. "What!" "Why?" "No way!" Sakura held out a hand silencing the genin. "If you're not supposed to use ninjutsu, then haven't you haven't already broken that rule?"

"Under certain conditions, ANBU are allowed to use any ninjutsu at their disposal. Being under the threat of death is one of them." Hebi chimed in answering Sakura. Kitsune turned to hebi. "I thought you were asleep." Hebi simply shrugged his shoulders. "Meh." He muttered. Kitsune simply sighed turning back to the group. "The hokage leaves it up to us to decide which circumstances are dangerous enough for us to use ninjutsu."

"But wait..." Hinata said. "Not being able to use ninjutsu severely handicaps your ability to complete a mission." Kitsune nodded. "Yes, that's true but using ninjutsu threatens our number one rule of being an ANBU, keeping our identity a complete secret.

Kitsune got up and stretched. "Only a few select group of people are allowed to know the identities of ANBU members. Like I said before, if either of Hebi's or my identity were discovered we'd both have to leave active ANBU duty and return to our plain old boring ninja lives." He looked at the rest of the group. "No offense."

Hinata still had a confused look on her face. "I don't see how using ninjutsu would threaten your identity." Kitsune sighed sitting down. "If you were an ANBU and I saw you use one of your gentle fist techniques, even an idiot would be able to tell that you're of the Hyuga clan. Now I wonder how many Hyuga members are of active duty? and Of that number, I wonder how many are women? Using all of that information, anyone would be able to guess your identity. You get it now?"

Hinata crossed her arms and her legs. "Yeah but If I killed you, it wouldn't matter if you saw my gentle fist technique or not. You'd be dead." She smiled. Kitsune crossed his arms and legs just like Hinata. "That's assuming if you could kill me, sweetie. And that's a big IF." He said mocking her. Her smile immediately turned into a frown.

"Say that you did kill every single enemy, what about someone who just happened to see you use your gentle fist technique by chance? Would you kill them? Even if they were just an innocent person?" Hinata froze at his question. "I-I-I…" She stuttered trying to somehow answer him. Kitsune continued goading her. "What about a child? Would you kill a child? Even if the smallest chance exists that your identity could be exposed, you must eliminate it."

Sakura looked at Hinata who was frozen in her seat. She turned to Kitsune. "Oh yeah? What would you do?" Kitsune only stared at her. Getting up he turned his back to the group and stretched his arms. The group sat silently awaiting his answer. "I would kill the child without hesitation." The group stared at him with wide eyes. Then he started speaking again.

"Now that I think about, you guys saw me use one my signature ninjutsu's didn't you?" Without even turning his head, he drew a kunai and flicked it towards them. The genin cried out in fright as the kunai flew past them and sliced Hibiki's cheek. As Kistune slowly turning his head, the group could feel a malicious aura emanating from him. "So…who wants to die first?" he asked.


	6. The Demon of the Mist Pt3

**Tournament of Fire**

**CHP.6 – The Demon of the Mist Pt.3 **

**Land of Wave – Base Camp**

Hibiki fell off his seat with a thud as the kunai flew by, barely grazing him. Touching his cheek, he could feel the warm sensation of the blood. As he stared at the blood dripping down his fingers, he felt a chill go down his spine.

"Hinata-sensei!" Konohamaru yelled. Hibiki turned his head and saw his sensei lying in a pool of blood. His breathing grew quicker. "How had that happened? When did that happen? Was this a dream? Please let it be a dream!" He looked over and saw Sakura also lying in a pool of her own blood. Kitsune laughed maliciously pulling out a handful of shurikan and sent them flying towards the genin.

Both Hibiki and Konohamaru had been frozen with fear initially but the sight of Hinata's dead body made them tremble with anger. "What kind of stupid rule made you kill your comrades just to keep your identity a secret?" They knew that Kitsune was a bad guy from the moment that they had first met him. He was bad news and needed to go down.

Konohamaru whipped out three shurikan from his holster. He knew that there was no way he was good enough to hit the incoming shurikan and knock them down. He was just a genin after all. Sure he was a decent shurikan thrower in his academy days but hitting a post is a lot easier than knocking down flying shuriken but he had an idea.

Throwing his shuriken he yelled, "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shuriken Shadow Clone)" The shuriken multiplied creating an impenetrable barrier. Kitsune scoffed with disbelief as his shurikan disappeared into the cloud of shurikan. "Those little brats." He leaped away with a somersault just as the ground was peppered with throwing stars.

Konohamaru turned to the rest of the boys. "C'mon! You guys need to get up! We're going to die out here if you don't start moving!" However, none of the boys did. Sakura's genin were completely incapacitated. Daisuke was speaking gibberish, Goro was crying trying to desperately wake Sakura up as if she were only asleep and Kei well… he was lying in a pool of greenish yellow liquid unconscious.

Udon was sitting on his knees, just staring at Hinata. Konohamaru kneeled down next to him. "C'mon, Udon, you've got to move. Hinata-sensei is dead. She's not coming coming back." Udon only shook his head. "B-but… Hinata-sensei…"

"Udon!" Konohamaru screamed grabbing his friend's shoulder. "She's dead! You hear me? DEAD! Now you need to stop crying and get up and help us fight or we are all going to die here!"

But Udon simply put his hands over his ears and continued shaking his head not believing anything that was coming out of Konohamaru's mouth. "Damn!" Konohamaru swore. He stared at Kitsune who was staring back at them. "Looks like it's just you and me." He muttered to Hibiki.

However, Hibiki ignored him and ran past him screaming, "You bastard!" Konohamaru tried to grab him as he ran past but was too slow.

Kitsune watched as the genin charged him. He smiled maliciously under his mask in anticipation. Hibiki threw a punch at Kitsune's face but Kitsune simply tilted his head to the side a little and dodged it with ease. He smirked and drove his fist into Hibiki's stomach, knocking the air out of him. Then before Hibiki could recover, Kitsune grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against a tree.

As Hibiki struggled to free himself from Kitsune's iron grip, a small brown blur appeared and bit Kitsune on the arm that was choking Hibiki. Kitsune stared at Haru who was dangling from his arm, his jaw closed tight.

Using his free arm, Kitsune grabbed Haru. Haru thought to himself that there was no way that he would release his jaw until his master had been set free. But as Kitsune's hand grabbed hold of him, Haru felt an indescribable pain around his ribs. The pain was so great that Haru had no choice but to let go.

Kitsune smiled at his tiny victory over the tiny little dog but then he felt a warm liquid run his arm. He stared at Haru with wide eyes. "You did not just -."

"Rawr!" The tiny little dog barked in defiance.

Kitsune tightened his hold on both of his both prisoners. Haru yelped as he began to feel his ribs crack while Hibiki started to suffocate. Konohamaru rushed forward to save the two before Kitsune killed the both of them but there wasn't just enough time. They might have died then and there if a kunai with an explosive tag at the end hadn't buried itself into the tree that Kitsune was standing right next to.

Instinctively, Kitsune dropped his two prisoners and leapt away. Seeing Hibiki and Haru free, Konohamaru quickly snatched the two before the explosive tag detonated. Konohamaru looked back to see who had thrown the kunai when he saw Udon. "I'm not letting anymore of my friends die today." He said. Konohamaru set Hibiki down as he coughed trying to catch his breath. "You're going to get yourself killed charging in like that! We need a plan." Hibiki nodded acknowledging his advice.

The three boys stared at Kitsune trying to looked for any kind of weakness that he might have, anything that might give them an edge. "Anyone come up with a plan yet?" Hibiki stared at Kitsune. "What's he doing?" He wondered seeing Kitsune trying to wipe himself clean. Then it hit him. "I've got an idea."

Kitsune flicked his wrist still trying to get the dog piss off his hand. Curious, he took a quick sniff and cringed at the smell. Then suddenly he did a back flip as a couple of kuani struck the ground where he had just been standing. A barrage of kunai and shurikan rained down upon him causing him to leap into the safety of the trees.

As he flipped around the branch of the tree and held onto it by one hand, he heard a sizzling noise. He looked up and saw that under the branch that he was holding onto, there was an explosive tag. He immediately let go of the branch but the explosive tag exploded hitting him with a shockwave. He landed on the ground with a grunt but as he got up he saw Hibiki heading towards him. "Piercing Fang!" He spun in a circular motion, creating a mini cyclone.

Shifting his weight to his right side, Kitsune pulled back his left shoulder barely escaping Hibiki's attack. As Hibiki came out of his spin, he skidded across the ground to a stop. "Piercing Fang!" he yelled starting his attack again. But Kitsune had already recovered his balance and dodged the attack easily enough.

Leaping over the spinning Hibiki, Kitsune wrapped a loop made of invisible wire around Hibiki neck. Coming out of a roll on the ground, Kitsune tightened the wire causing Hibiki to fall to the ground writhing in agony. Just as Kitsune was about to tighten the wire again, this time for a killing blow, He raised his arms up and crossed them to block a downwards kick from Konohamaru. Meanwhile, Udon had rushed to the aid of Hibiki and cut at the wire suffocating him.

Using Kitsune as a rebound, Konohamaru leaped off him and onto the ground. He pressed his attack, throwing jabs and kicks which Kitsune blocked accordingly. Suddenly Konohamaru jumped into the air and aimed a kick to Kitsune's face which he caught with ease.

Kitsune smiled over his assured victory. However, Konohamaru didn't stop. "Katon: Haisekisho! (Fire Style: Burning Ash)!" A hugh ash cloud emitted from Konohamaru's mouth, blinding Kitsune. He dropped Konohamaru out of reflex allowing Konohamru to escape.

Kitsune looked left and right looking for the genin but only found himself surrounded by the ash cloud. "It's alright." He thought to himself. "Even though I can't see them, they can't see me either."

"Hibiki! Now!" Kitsune turned at the sound of the voice but turned around again hearing something behind him. "Piercing Fang!" Kitsune turned to see a cyclone headed towards him. "Shit!" His eye's widened as he felt the attack hit him head on. "GAH!" He cried out as he felt Hibiki slam into his torso and sent both of them smashing into the ground.

…

The three genin stared at the dying anbu lying before them. "Now what?" they said looking at each other. None of them had killed anyone before. What were they supposed to do next? Hibiki stared at the anbu. Here he was dying, coughing up blood. Even though he had hit Kitsune dead center with his piercing fang, it wasn't a particularly powerful jutsu. Certainly not as powerful as that mysterious jutsu that Kitsune had used before.

"How…?" the anbu coughed. The genin stepped closer to him wondering what he wanted to say. "how did you three get me?" he continued. "I was - *cough!*… I was hidden in the ash cloud…"

"I can smell you." Hibiki answered pointing at his nose. "My family is famous for being renowned trackers. I could pinpoint your location as easily as getting out of bed especially sense Haru peed all over you."

The memory of Haru peeing on him came back. The genin watched as his shoulders began shaking. He started laughing insanely, startling all of them. The sight of Kitsune laughing like a mad men sent them scrambling away from him. Then he stopped.

He slowly raised his head and stared at them. The genin were staring back watching his every move. Then the genin saw something strange happen. Kitsune seemed to flicker for a moment. There it was again! Then both Kitsune and the entire forest around them started flickering, faster and faster until suddenly everything faded to black.

…

"You did what?" Sakura screamed. Kitsune put his hands up, trying to protect himself and to calm her down. "Relax. Its just a little genjutsu." Sakura gaped at them with an open mouth. "They'll be fine." He reassured her. "They'll wake up any second now…probably…most likely…hopefully…"

Sakura just stared at him. "You're crazy! You guys just can't go around putting people under genjutsu whenever you want!" She turned to Hinata. "Hinata, tell them they're crazy." However, Hinata wasn't so sure. She didn't really like that the two anbu had just gone ahead and layed a genjutsu on the genin without telling them but after today's events she felt that both Sakura and her should put a little more trust in the two anbu. They owed them that much after today's events.

Then the genin slowly started to wake up, one by one. "Wha?" They looked confused and dazed from their experience under Hebi's genjutsu. "See? I told you they would wake up. Perfectly fine." Udon struggled to rise up but Hinata set him down saying, "Easy now. Don't get up just yet."

Udon looked up at the sound of her voice not believing what he was hearing. "Sensei…" he whispered in disbelief. He was wordless for a sec but then a smile of relief appeared on his face, his eyes beginning to tear up. "Sensei!" He cried out, jumping up to give her a hug.

The genin looked up hearing his cry. They saw that both Hinata and Sakura were completely fine, alive and well. They all jumped and rushed to them. "We thought you were dead!" They cried as they swarmed the two.

The two kunoichi were caught off guard and surprised by the genin's sudden and strange behavior. Hearing that the genin thought they were dead, they turned and glared accusingly at the two anbu who simply put their arms up in a weak attempt to feign innocence. Then Hinata's genin turned their heads until they saw Kitsune staring at them.

"AH!" They cried out pointing fingers. They jumped up and quickly hid behind Hinata using her as a shield. "We killed you!" They shouted. This time it was Kitsune's turn to turn and glare as he turned around glaring at Hebi. Sighing, he explained. "It was just a tiny little genjutsu. Nothing was real. It was all an illusion."

"Genjutsu…?" The genin muttered as they recalled their nightmare. Kitsune clapped his hands grabbing their attention. "Alright. I think we've had a long enough day. How about we call it quits? I'll take first watch. Hinata. Sakura. You two will be rotating with us when it's time. Until then get some rest."

"Wait!" Sakura cried out but Kitsune turned away and both the two anbu started walking away. Sakura was about to get up and chase after them but Hinata grabbed her shoulder stopping her. Sakura turned and looked at her. "What are you doing?"

"What are you doing?" Hinata asked redirecting the question. Sakura rolled her eyes. "I want to know why they put a genjutsu on the genin. Was it really necessary?" Sakura started to go after them but Hinata stopped her again.

"I'm sure they have their reasons. Let's just put our trust in them for now ok? We owe them that much after today's events. Besides it's been a long day and we could both use the rest. We can always ask them tomorrow, ok?" Sakura sighed and nodded.

As the anbu walked away, Kitsune edged closer to Hebi. "So how did they do?" Hebi coughed clearing his throat. "Well, that Hyuga girl. Her genin managed to kill you."

"I heard." Kitsune said somewhat annoyed. Hebi chuckled. "Dog boy and the "prince" of konoha over there can use ninjutsu easily enough and glasses is quite handy with explosives. "Hmm." Kitsune muttered while nodding his head.

"The other three?" Hebi shook his head. "Completely useless. They froze up. They'll have to be recycled and tossed back into the academy." Kitsune nodded. "Well there goes one of our objectives ero-sennin gave us."

Hebi snickered at Kitsune's nickname for the hokage. "When did you start calling the gondaime that?" Kitsune shurrged his shoulders. "Long story. Anyways, I'll take first watch. You look like you're exhausted." He gave Hebi a little shove. "Looked like you were a little slow out there today too."

Hebi scoffed at him. "We both know that I have more endurance than you. Both in the field and with the ladies."

"Ha! Ladies call me, the dragon because of my gigantic -." Kitsune did a quick pelvic thrust to get his point across.

"Pfft! You mean like those tiny little dragons that we found in the desert that one -."

"Oh shut it." Kitsune said before taking off leaving Hebi chuckling. Hinata watched Kitsune leave, wondering what the two were laughing about. She felt somewhat surprised hearing them laugh and poke fun at each other.

The forest was quiet as the leaf ninja slept. Hinata could hear everyone's quiet breathing as they slept. She shifted nervously in her bed roll unable to sleep. She sat up, unable to lie down any longer quietly getting up.

Hebi opened up his eyes hearing her creep around the camp. He was curious about what Hinata was doing up so late at night. He figured that she probably just needed to use the bathroom or something and closed his eyes again.

Hinata left the campsite and stalked off into the forest. She looked around, left and right using the light of the moon to search for Kitsune. "Where did he go?" She wondered. She had saw him go in this direction but there was no sign of him. At least she thought she did.

"I'm up here." He called surprising her. Hinata looked up and saw him sitting up in a tree staring at the moon. "Uh…mind if I come up?" He didn't answer her which left her with a dilemma. "Uh…ok…I'm coming up then…"

She jumped up and sat a couple of feet away from him, not wanting to get to awkwardly close to him. They just sat there looking at the moon for a moment, basking in the moon light. The silence between them left her feeling a little awkward. She sneaked a peak at him from the corner of her eye, wondering what he was thinking about.

"Did you need something?" He suddenly asked, starling her. "Oh! Uh…yeah…I just…" She stopped herself, taking a deep breath. "I just wanted to say thanks for saving us…earlier today." He looked over at her which caused her to look away. "And…I wanted to say…sorry."

He looked at her strangly although even if she were looking straight at him, she wouldn't have been able to see because of his mask. "What for?" he asked. She started to tap both of her index fingers together feeling a little nervous. It was a habit that she developed as a child and never managed to get rid of it. Whenever she felt nervous or uncomfortable, she tapped her fingers together.

"For treating you the way I did. You know…back at the village in front of the gate when we were leaving. I was being stupid and immature." Kitsune was a little surprised that she woke up in the middle of the night to apologize for something that seemed to be so…irrelevant. "Uh…don't worry about." He said. Hinata nodded, thankful to have finally gotten that off her chest.

Kitsune turned around thinking that Hinata was finished and that was all she wanted to talk about but she asked "So…why did you guys put a genjutsu over the genin?" Her question caught him off guard making him laugh. Here she was again asking questions about irrelevant subjects. "Oh. that? We just needed to test the genin so that we knew their strengths, weakness, etc."

"Oh…" Hinata said feeling embarrassed about feeling so serious over something so simple. "What for?" She asked. Kitsune cleared his throat with a cough. "Zabuza. The guy from earlier. No doubt he's going to come after Tazuna again and when he does, I can't have 6 genin freezing on me again like earlier today. When we get to -."

"Wait! He going to be coming back? I thought you killed him?" Hinata shouted interrupting him. Kitsune looked at her. "He's one of the legendary seven swordsmen of the mist. If he didn't come back then, well let's just say that I'd lose all respect for them. Always assume the worst, that way you're never surprised."

Hinata breathed in quietly, still taking in this new information. "Anyways, like I was saying, when we get to the land of wave, we'll be training the genin in the areas that we think that they need improvement on and pray that they don't freeze up again."

"And what areas do they need improvement on?" Hinata asked curiously. Kitsune crossed his arms and thought for a moment. "Well…Just about every single one of them." He said causing Hinata to laugh a little.

"Hey, I was just thinking… isn't your identity at risk now? Earlier you guys were talking about how using ninjutsu could possibly threaten your identities. He knows that you can use…um…" She stuttered a little, forgetting the name of his jutsu. "Rasengan." He said helping her help. "Yes. The rasengan."

He leaned back and set his hands on the branch where he was sitting. "The rasengan is actually a very well known jutsu. It was famously known as one of the yondaime's signature jutsu's, It's actually a universal technique. Anyone could use it regardless of your element affinity. However, actually pulling off the technique is an entirely different story. To my knowledge only two people in the entire world can use this technique, one of them obviously being me.

"Wait…Who's the other person?" Hinata asked. Kitsune smiled under his mask. "Why, it's none other than the gondaime himself, the yondaime's sensei. It was actually the Gondaime himself who taught it to me."

Hinata was quiet for a moment. "Wait…doesn't that make it worst then? Being the only other person who can use that jutsu?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm 99% sure that no one has seen me without my mask and use that jutsu at the same time.

She raised her eyebrows and smiled at him. "Only 99%?" He chuckled. "Well I wouldn't want to appear to be too conceited." She gave him a small laugh. "Sure. Whatever you say. So what about Hebi-san? That lightning jutsu that he used? Same story?"

He let out a small scoff. "His jutsu's probably even more famous than my own. Our sensei from when we were only genin passed it down to him personally. Why this jutsu was one of the few things that made our sensei famous." Hinata edged closer obviously eager to learn who this extraordinary ninja was. Kitsune looked left and right as if he were making sure no one was listening to their conversation even though he clearly knew that there wasn't.

"You might know him as, Kakashi Hatake, the copy cat ninja." Hinata's eyes widened with disbelief. "YOUR SENSEI WAS THE KAKASHI HATAKE? THE MAN WHO COPIED OVER A THOUSAND DIFFERENT JUTSUS?" Kitsune smiled.

Hinata sat back speechless. His entire being seemed to be unreal. He could use one of the yondaime's personal jutsu's and he was trained by two equally legendary ninja. Looking back at him, she began to see him in a new light.

She felt a sense of relief and relaxation. She had heard rumors about anbu members, how they were supposedly a ruthless, secretive and cold hearted group of ninja whose motto was: There is only the mission. Nothing else.

There were moments where she thought that Kitsune and Hebi were cold heartless monsters which only added to her concern and moments where she thought she was talking with a five year old. It left her confused and confounded, but one thing was for sure after her conversation with him just now, underneath that mask of his was an ordinary person.

She found herself staring at Kitsune, wondering what kind of person was under that mask when she caught a glimpse of his blue eyes staring back at her. She immediately looked down, away from his piercing gaze.

Kitsune smiled as he watched her. He edged closer to her sensing her unease. Hinata heard him coming closer to her and began to panic. She started to breathe faster as her heart began to race. "What's going on? Why's he coming over here? What's the matter with me?" She felt sick in her stomach. It was a new feeling that she had never expericend before and she didn't like it one bit.

"You lived in Kunoichi village right?" He asked getting closer. She looked up at him surprised and stuttered, "Uh…Yeah…" She caught the gaze of his ocean blue eyes again and the feeling in her chest tightened while the feeling in her stomach worsened. She started to move away from him, trying to keep the distance between them but he only followed her.

"So that means you don't talk to men much do you?"

"Uh… Of course I do… all the time!" She laughed nervously. "Of course I don't you dimwit!" She thought to herself. "Men aren't allowed in Kunoichi village. It's called Kunoichi village for a reason!" Thinking back on it, when was the last time she talked to someone of the opposite sex? Her dad? Well he obviously didn't count…

"What about kissing? Have you ever kissed a guy before?" His question took her guard. "WHAT?" Suddenly she felt her back hit against trunk of the tree. Looking behind her, she saw her escape route cut off.

"Uh…could you repeat that again?" She asked turning around with a weak smile on her face. But as she turned around she found herself face to face with Kitsune, his mask inches away from her face. "I said…Have you ever kissed a guy before?"

"Uh…" She said weakly, unsure of what to say. Her eyes widened as she watched him reach for his mask, and lift it high enough to expose his lips. She was staring at his lips when she noticed him edging closer to her. She shut her eyes as she felt her entire body tense up.

Just as their lips were moments apart, thier eyes shot open as she heard rustling below on the forest floor. Looking down, they saw Hibiki rustling through the forest. Still half asleep, he walked a bush and unzipped his pants.

"Pfff." Kitsune tried to hide his laugh as Hinata breathed with relief. She immediantly got up, her back still against the tree. "Uh…I better get back…" Kitsune watched as she jumped down and sighed dissappointly. "Oh well... there's always next time I suppose."

"Ahhhh…" Hibiki said with relief. Suddenly he heard something and turned to his left slightly to see Hinata walking towards him. He jumped up and stuttered, "H-Hinata-sensei!"

She merely held up her hand to block her view of him as she passed by. "Uh…" He was speechless as she headed back to the camp.

Sakura sat up, rubbing her eyes as Hinata rustled into her bed roll. "Where did you go?"

"Uh…bathroom!" Hinata replied nervously. Sakura stared at her. "did something happen?" Hinata's eyes widened in concern. "Nope! Absolutely nothing. G'night!" Hinata pulled the bed roll over her and turned her back to Sakura, pretending to snore. "Zzz."

Sakura continued to stare at her until finally she shrugged her shoulders and went back to sleep. Hinata let out a quiet sigh of relief as she heard Sakura settle back into bed. As she lay in her bed, she remembered her too close for comfort moment from earlier. She immediately pulled the cover over her head hoping that no one saw her red beet face.

**End Chapter 6 – The Demon in the Mist pt.4**

**AN: Ok, sorry everyone that I haven't updated in like forever. I recently came across my old stash of pokemon games and well I had a bit of too much fun. Anyways, I originally planned for this chapter to be the end of the Demon in the mist arc but I decided to upload what I have done so far because I haven't uploaded in forever. The next chapter will definitely be the end of the Demon of the Mist arc…I hope. Best Regards, BakaDango **


	7. The Demon of the Mist Pt4

**Tournament of Fire**

**CHP. 7 The Demon of the Mist Pt.4 **

**Land Wave – Tazuna's Village**

Tazuna rapped the door three consecutive times sounding three loud knocks throughout the house.

"Inari! Could you get that?" A woman's voice cried out. The door opened slowly as a young boy poked his head out checking to see who was at the door. He had an annoyed look on his face but it disappeared as he cried out "Jii-Chan!"

Tazuna laughed out loudly as he grabbed the young boy into a bear hug. "Hahaha! You've gotten bigger, Inari! Soon enough you'll be towering over me!"

Hearing voices at the door, a young woman with black hair wearing a brown cooking apron around her waist looked around the corner. "Inari! Who's at the -?" Her eyes widened as she saw her father standing in the doorway. "Dad…?"

"Tsunami…" Tazuna whispered as he smile, holding out his arms. He grunted as she ran into him hugging him tightly. He smiled as he felt the soft embrace his daughter. As they parted, she noticed the group of people standing behind him in the doorway. "Dad?" Who are they?" She asked pointing a finger at them.

"Oh them? They're... my friends." He said choosing his words carefully. Tazuna could tell by looking at her face that she wasn't buying it. "I'll tell you at dinner. Ok?" Tsunami stood there for a moment before finally sighing. "Ok, well…" She started counting them all wondering how she was ever going to cook enough food for the entire group. "Looks like I've got my work cut out for me this evening." She said with a weak smile still concerned about the relationship her father could possibly have with this dangerous looking group of people.

**Mist Ninja Hideout **

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

Both the Mist ninja looked in the direction of the voice to see a short stubby gray haired man in a suit standing in the doorway. As he entered the room, two yakuza looking fellows walked in behind him. The taller of the two body guards had tattoos all over his body and wore only the lower half a kimono. Most notably he had an eye patch over his right eye. The second bodyguard wore a regular jacket with some pants and had what looked like a ski hat on top of his head.

The short gray haired man started walking towards the bedridden Zabuza with a scowl on his face. "I paid you good money to take care of a single old man and you can't even do that? If you're going to waste my time, then I believe there's no need for any further business." He reached out for Zabuza's throat but stopped as Haku seized his hand causing Gato to cry out in surprise.

"Don't. Touch him. With those filthy hands of yours." Haku tightened his grip causing the man to cry out in pain. The two bodyguards seeing their employer in trouble began to rush forward, reaching for their swords. Haku saw their movement and in a blink of an eye, he was holding the tip of their swords at their throats. The two bodyguards stood frozen in place as they looked at each other trying to find out what had just happened.

"Haku. That's enough." Zabazu whispered.

Haku continued holding the blades at their throats but finally obeyed and lowered the swords.

"Gato."

Rubbing his wrist, Gato looked at the bed ridden ninja and felt a demonic aura emanating from the demon of the mist. "I'll finish the job." Zabuza said. "Besides, I have a debt to settle with a certain blond haired ninja.

**Land of Wave - Tazuna Village**

Tsunami sat quietly as she took in the events of her father's journey. Slowly looking up at her father, she quietly whispered, "Dad, maybe you should -."

Tazuna stood up hitting the table causing Tsunami to jump back. "I can't believe you of all people…"

"Dad…"

"The people need this bridge, Tsunami! With it, we can finally be a part of the rest of the world and bring prosperity to this village." Tsunami still looked like she didn't want her father to continue his work but Tazuna only scratched his head not knowing what else to say. "I need to go check on the bridge."

Hinata and Sakura looked at each other, unsure of what to do as they watch Tazuna walk out the door. "Uh…Tsunami-san…" Tsunami looked up at them. She quickly wiped her face and smiled. "Where are my manners? My name is Tsunami. I'm Tazuna's daughter if you didn't already catch that."

Hinata and Sakura smiled and nodded, glad to see Tsunami's smile. Tsunami grabbed the young boy from earlier by the shoulders. "This is my son, Inari." He nodded to the rest of the group as his mother gave a kiss on the forehead.

Not wanting to disturb the family any longer, Hinata and Sakura got up and moved towards the door. "We better go and make sure he didn't get into any trouble." Tsunami quickly grabbed Sakura's hand before they could leave. "Please…Please watch over him." She begged them. Sakura nodded. "Of course. We wouldn't dare let anything happen to him.

"C'mon boys. Hurry up." Hinata called to them clapping her hands to grab their attention.

"But I'm not done with my tea yet…" Konohamaru complained. The other genin nodded holding up their tea cups as well.

"We have a job to do remember?" Hinata said.

"Aww…" the genin complained as they got up and began to stream out the door. Hinata turned around and bowed to Tsunami one last time before closing the door behind her, letting the family have their peace and quiet.

…

As Tazuna walked through the open market, the leaf ninja carefully arranged themselves around him in a protective yet subtle formation.

As they passed through the market, Sakura glanced at Hinata who nodded in reply. Sakura let out a quick whistle to notify the genin.

To an ordinary person, the whistle would have meant nothing but to the genin, it was a signal that let them know that they were being followed at least... they would have known had they been paying attention instead of looking around at random things like the empty stalls in the marketplace or random bugs on the ground.

As Sakura glanced behind her the two figures that she had seen earlier were gone, out of sight. "_Where did they go?" _she wondered. Turning back to Hinata, she whispered frantically "Hinata, they're gone. I don't see them."

Hinata nodded knowing what to do next. She activated her byakugan seeing two figures behind a closed takoyaki stand. "There!" she shouted throwing two kunai in their direction. But before they could reach their target, they were struck down by two opposing shurikan.

The sound of metal striking against metal startled the figures behind the takoyaki stand sending the two small children to jump out in fright. They were wearing tan yet extremely raggedy cloaks similar to the ones of their pursuers. Hinata was started to see children but was already looking for the source of the shurikan but stopped hearing Sakura whisper, "H-h-hinata…"

Turning around she saw Sakura frozen in place. Looking down at her feet, Hinata saw two large snakes beginning to coil themselves around Sakura's legs hissing.

"H-h-help me…" Sakura whimpered helplessly as she stood frozen in place feeling the cold touch of the snakes' scales rubbing against her legs.

Hinata was about to move forward but stopped as she felt an all too familiar feeling of cold steel press up against her neck.

"Close. But we were actually behind the dango stand." Kitsune whispered.

Looking over her shoulder, she saw the blond anbu wearing the same tan cloak that their mysterious pursuers from earlier were wearing. Looking over at the genin, Hinata saw that they too were being held at kunai point by shadow clones wearing identical cloaks.

As Kitsune pulled the kunai away from her throat, she relaxed her body realizing that there was no real threat but instantly spun around to slap him only for him to stop her midway as he gripped her wrist.

"Ooh. Fiesty aren't you?" He whispered playfully.

Blushing red with embarrassment she shook free of his grip and pushed him away. Chuckling at her behavior he turned around and motioned for his clones to follow him. The clones dragged the genin by the collars across the dirt while they shouted vulgar insults at them.

"Hey where are you -." Hinata started to say chasing after them but stopped when Sakura called her name again. "H-H-Hinata! Wher-Where are you going? Don't leave me!" Hinata groaned as she ran back to help her helpless friend.

"Hey! What the hell? Let us go!" They cried, desperately trying to break away free but to no avail.

…

Kitsune led the genin to a secluded area in a forest not too far from the village, but far enough to avoid interruption from the locals. The clones dropped the genin and dissappeared leaving the genin completely alone with Kitsune.

"What are we doing out here?" one of the genin complained.

However, Kitsune didn't answer them. He simply walked over to one of the large trees and lay a hand on the trunk.

"Today... We'll be climbing trees."

The genin were dumbfounded. "Climbing trees?"

"You mean you brought us all the way out here to climb trees? I climb trees all the time back home."

"Yeah."

"This is dumb. Can we go back to Hinata and Sakura sensei?"

"Can I have more tea?"

Kitsune threw a kuani at them, making them jump up in surprise." You ready to listen now? We're going to be climbing trees with only our feet." He said pointing to his Kusai Ashi.

"What? That's impossible!"

Kitsune shook his head in frustration. "_Why do I even bother_?" He simply turned to the tree and placed a foot on the trunk of the tree as he began to scale up the tree. The genin watched wide eyed, mouths wide open as they saw Kitsune perform the seemingly impossible feat of climbing a tree with only his feet.

He continued to climb higher and higher, stopping at a branch so that he was hanging upside down staring right at them." So, what are you boys waiting for?" he called to the genin on the forest floor.

The genin only looked at each other and looked back at the blond anbu. "We-We're still not doing this stupid exercise. Kitsune only rolled his eyes. Here he was trying to help them with some training but all they wanted to do was to go back to the house an drink tea. _"Alright. If they won't climb maybe…"_

He bit the end of his finger and place his hand on the base of the tree. "Kuchoyose no Jutsu."

*Poof!*

The boys turned around to see a pack of dogs growling at them.

"Your choice boys. Climb the trees or…well I'm sure you already you know what will happen if you don't." One of dogs barked and snarled at the genin, sending them all jumping with fright. Even Haru was frightened as he quietly whimpered. The boys looked up at Kitsune hoping for some kind of sentiment but instead Kitsune only smiled as he whispered the word…

"Go."

The dogs hearing the command sprang upon the defenseless genin causing to scream.

"YYYAAAAHHHH!"

...

"We're back."

Hinata and Sakura turned to see Kitsune entering the house. The genin stumbled in through the doorway, piling onto each other, too exhausted to move.

" Ugh..." the genin groaned as they lay on the floor.

Both Sakura and Hinata looked at Kitsune giving him a "what did you do to them?" look but he only shrugged his shoulders.

The two turned back to their genin worried that one of them might be seriously injured but hid a smile as they saw their genin sleeping quietly in front of the doorway where they had collapsed..

"Dinners ready!" Tsunami called as she walked into the room. The genin's eyes shot open as they sat up sniffing the air around them smelling fresh fish, succulent beef, steamed vegetables accompanied with the all too familiar scent of white jasmine rice. They stood up with drooling mouths as they allowed themselves a moment to stare as Tsunami lay the food on the table.

"Food...?" the genin whispered as if they hadn't seen food in ages. "Rah!" they screamed as they pounced on the table shoving their fists into each others faces unwilling to share any morsel with each other.

"Har har har!" Tazuna roared. " That's the spirit! Inari lets show these boys how it's really done!"

With that, they jumped into the fray leaving the women speechless. "Boys will be boys..."Tsunami sighed as she set down a separate plate for the kunoichi. "Haha..."the two managed to laugh weakly. They watched with horrid as the boys turned into beasts as they fought each other for pieces of precious meat. Surprisingly enough, the two noticed that neither Kitsune or Hebi had decided to engage in the brawl but rather chose to skillfully swipe pieces of food whenever there was an opening, dodging punches and kicks here and there, occasionally using their chopsticks to stop incoming attacks.

As Hinata watched them it suddenly occurred to her, "_how the heck were those two supposed to eat with their masks on?"_ "Hey Sakura." she whispered giving her a friendly poke in the side causing her to jump up in her seat. "Eek!"

Sakura immediately turned around and smacked Hinata's hand away causing Hinata to cry out in surprise.

"Ow! What was that for?" Hinata complained holding her hurt hand.

"Why'd you poke me?" Sakura said defending herself.

"I just wanted to ask -?" Hinata stopped herself noticing something odd about Sakura. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she took a moment to examine her. "Did you gain weight...?

Sakura face flushed red hearing Hinata's accusation. "N-n-n-n-NO!"

"Are you sure?" Hinata asked not quite believing her, readying her finger to poke Sakura in the side once more.

A-a-anyways what did you want?" Sakura asked hoping to distract Hinata's mind from the touchy subject.

"Oh that's right, how do you suppose those two -?" she started to ask pointing her finger at the two anbu but stopped seeing the two already walking out the door.

Tazuna noticed them leaving the house and yelled after them, "Don't lay on the roof you two. I just fixed it and it ain't stable yet, you hear?"

…

"and just when i had her right where i wanted her one of those stupid genin appeared out of nowhere."

"Uh-huh."

Kitsune looked over at Hebi who was laying on his back with his eyes closed. "Your not even listening to me are you?"

"Nope."

Kitsune sighed and turned to the stars. The two were lying on top of the roof clearly ignoring Tazuna's warning. "C'mon." He said. "Who else am I supposed to turn to with my love problems?"

"Love problems? Didn't sound like you were having any trouble to me. Besides, you'll probably end up doing her once then tossing her to the side once your finished, just like all those other girls. You are one heartless bastard you know that? You're despicable."

Kitsune looked over at Hebi with his eyebrows raised. "This is coming from the guy who goes through more women in a month than i eat ramen in a week. And i eat a lot of ramen!"

Hebi simply turned his back to him and shrugged his shoulders. Kitsune turned his attention back to the stars just in time to see a comet streaking across the sky. "You still haven't changed you know that? After all these years, you're as heartless as ever."

Silence.

Kitsune looked over hoping for a reaction but nothing. "Well, it's no wonder you came in second place at the sports festival. I can't ever imagine a person who doesn't care about anything getting first place."

Hebi's eyes shot open and sat up. Kitsune smiled as he knew that he had just gone into a touchy subject for Hebi, the one who always came out on top in everything. Well...almost everything.

"That competition was rigged and you know it."

Kitsune sat up as well with a smirk on his face. "Says the person who came in second place." He said stressing out the last two words.

Hebi stared at him. "Rematch here and now. Loser has to chase after Tora, every time he runs away from the fire daimyo's wife.

Kitsune stood up, patting the dirt off his pants. "Deal."

The two ninja got up and spread about ten feet away from each other. They had their hands at their sides, ready for action. They closely watched each other as they waited for the other to make the first move.

Silence. Then the air was broken by the sound of a cricket causing the two anbu to burst into the action.

"Kabaddi! Kabaddi! Kabaddi! Kabaddi!"

...

The entire house was quiet as everyone slept… except for one particular room. The boys and Tazuna were all stuffed into one room, and it sounded like thunder in there. They were snoring loudly, their mouths wide open.

Luckily, the two kunoichi had gotten a room all to themselves, where it was quiet and peaceful.

…

"Kabaddi! Kabaddi! Kabaddi! Kabaddi!"

…

Hinata slept quietly on her futon as she rolled in her sleep. She was dressed in a white bathrobe that Tsunami had provided. However, in her sleep, the robe had begun to loosen itself exposing her white silky skin to the air.

…

"Kabaddi! Kabaddi! Kabaddi! Kabaddi!"

…

Hinata twitched in her sleep as she felt something fall on her face but continued sleeping even as the ceiling above her began to crack.

…

"Kabaddi! Kabaddi! Kabaddi! Kaba-whoa!"

The entire roof under Kitsune split open, sending him dropping through the roof. There was an explosion of dust as Kitsune fell into the household below.

"Ugh..." He groaned. He looked up seeing a huge hole in the ceiling. "Oops..." He said as he turned around trying to figure out where he was at.

"Hinata!" *cough* "Are you alright?" Sakura cried as she stood up. Kitsune froze.

"_What the hell is she doing…wait if she's over there where's -." _He stopped himself.

"_Aw crap…"_

He looked down to see a stunned Hinata staring straight at him. He realized that he been sitting on top of her this whole time.

"Y-Yo what's up?"

He saw Hinata's eyes shift away from him and look down himself realizing that this whole time, he had been groping one of her breasts. They looked back at each other for a brief moment before Hinata's face flushed a deep red.

"Kyaaaaaaa!" She screamed followed close by with a loud

*Smack!*

...

" Hmph."

Kitsune watched as Hinata walked pass by, clearly ignoring him. Hebi chuckled as he watched the two. "She still ignoring you?"

"Yep."

It had almost been a week since the incident but Hinata showed no sign of forgiving Kitsune any time soon. Tazuna had just sighed when he saw the hole in the ceiling. "Dam it you guys! i thought i told you to stay off the roof!"

"C'mon boys." Hinata called to the genin. They looked at Kitsune unsure of what to do. Today was supposed to be another day of training which they soon learned to dread but when they had tried to avoid training one day well… let's just say that afterwards, they knew better than to ditch training.

Kitsune shooed them away with a wave of his hand giving them the green light to go ahead. As the genin ran enthusiastically after the kunoichi, Kitsune noticed Konohamaru had stayed behind. He pointed at the blond anbu, "Teach me how to use the rasengan!"

Kitsune's eye's narrowed. "What?"

"It was so cool when you beat up that Zabuza guy from before."

Konohamaru had a smile on his face. "If i can learn how to use the rasengan I'd easily beat up those two guys from before and show them how a real ninja fights!" He jabbed the air a couple times pretending to hit an imaginary person. He turned and grinned at the blond haired anbu but unfortunately did not see the frown on his face.

...

"Konohamaru?"

Hinata noticed that among her genin that he was the only one who was missing from the group.

"Konohamaru!" She cried wondering where he could possibly be. "_Where did he go now?"_ Looking around she spotted him hopping side to side jabbing the air over by the two ANBU. She immediately frowned spotting Kitsune. "Kono-!" She began to cry when she all of sudden saw Kitsune flicker in and out of her sight and appear suddenly behind Konohamaru.

...

"Gulp..."

Konohamaru was shaking nervously as he felt Kitsune place a kunai to his throat.

"So you want to play ninja, is that it?" You think this is a game or something?" Kitsune asked him. His voice was dark and cold. Konohamaru was quiet as he stared at the kunai inches from his throat. The silence was nerve wrecking as Kitsune waited for his answer.

"W-what d-d-d-o you me-e-e-an...?"

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're -" Hinata yelled as she grabbed Kitsune by the shoulder but instantly froze as she had a vision of a red colored monster screaming and roaring madly. The vision was only for a brief moment but had stunned her enough so much to the point that she had unconsciously removed her hand from his shoulder.

Kitsune looked at her for a moment before walking away. Closing his eyes, a memory that he thought to be locked away came back to haunt him.

...

"Kakashi-sensei! Kakashi-sensei!"

…

Hebi watched as Kitsune walked past him. He could sense the turmoil within Kitsune and only followed him silently as they shunshined away from the rest of the group.

Hinata could feel the blood rushing to her frozen limbs as she slowly recovered from her horrifying vision. _"What the hell was that?" _She thought as she slumped to the ground. Never in her life had she felt something so horrible. "W-was that… chakra?" She knew that her clan was extremely sensitive to chakra but...what she saw was... something else.

"Hinata-sensei?"

Hinata looked up at the concerned Konohamaru and focused back into reality.

"Are you ok, Konohamaru-kun?"

"Yeah...more or less." Konohamaru replied weakly still a little scared from Kitsune's reaction.

"That's good." She slowly got up her legs still shaking a bit. "Let's go back to the others, ok?"

Konohamaru nodded. As they were walking back to the others, Hinata barely heard Konohamaru mutter, "What's his problem...i only wanted to learn a new jutsu...jerk." Normally Hinata would have agreed with the young genin but she felt that there was something more to this.

…

The white haired man was coughing blood as he struggled to breathe. Rain fell all around the two genin as they watched over their sensei struggle for life. "P-p-protect the daimyo." The white haired man struggled to say. He slowly turned to a small child dressed in fine robes surrounded by his councilors. The man turned his attention to the blond haired genin to his right and smiled. "What's wrong? You're not crying for me are you?"

...

Hebi saw a glimmer of a teardrop as they leapt through the forest. "Kitsune."

"I know...I'm sorry."

It took the two anbu only a matter of minutes for them to reach a large boulder that was concealed by overgrowth. Hebi walked over to a small shrine that had a small Buddha in front of it and reached for a hidden lever behind it.

They heard the sound of a soft click as the boulder began to move revealing a small entrance behind it. The two entered the cave and walked blindly into the darkness until eventually they saw a light at the end of the hallway leading them to an open room where they saw a konoha anbu insignia etched into the wall.

...

Hinata and Sakura looked at the impoverished village around them. When they had first arrived in the village, they hadn't noticed it but all the shops were all closed, gone out of business. Homeless people were just sitting on the side of the road while children dressed in raggedy clothes ran around playing around on the streets. A small child that could've been a girl ran up to Konohamaru and held out a hand.

"W-what?" he asked nervously not sure what the child wanted.

The child simply shook its hand still waiting. Sakura opened her pouch and took out a piece of candy and placed it into the child's hand.

"Here you go." She said softly crouching down so that she was eye level with the girl. The child looked at the piece of candy as if she had never seen candy before. She looked at it and fingered it unsure of what to do next. The child's eyes were focused entirely on the piece of candy not knowing what it was. Sakura smiled as she saw the child look back up at her.

"See?" She opened another piece of candy and tossed the it inside her mouth to show the child what to do with it.

Following her example, the child cautiously opened the candy and popped the candy into her mouth. The child eyes lit up as the flavors erupted inside her mouth. She was jumping up and down amazed with her new found discovery. As soon as she was done, the little child looked back Sakura and held out her hand again.

"You want more?"

The child nodded. Sakura looked behind her and saw a group of small children hiding behind a trash bin wondering who the new strangers were and what they were giving out. Sakura smiled again and reached inside her bag and pulled out four pieces of candy.

"Here you go. Make sure to share with your friends ok?" The girl nodded before grabbing the candy in one fell swoop and running off followed closely behind by her companions.

Tazuna walked over to Sakura as she was getting up, wiping the dirt off her legs. "That was a good thing you did there girlie. There's not many chances for a child to eat sweets here."

"Gato."Sakura whispered instantly realizing the cause of this misery.

Tazuna nodded. "Gato controls all the shipping here. Unless we pay his outrageous taxes, there's no business or goods flowing in and out of this village."

He turned and looked at the half completed bridge in the distance. "That is the future of this village. Without it, soon this entire village will die out and everyone with it. It is our one hope for a better life."

Sakura turned to Hinata wanting her opinion on this but stopped when she noticed that something was wrong. Hinata wasn't even paying attention.

"Hinata?" Hinata jumped up as Sakura shook her by the shoulder. "You ok?"

Hinata was shook her head trying to clear her mind. "Huh? Uh yeah sure why wouldn't i be?"

…

"WHAT? WE HAVE TO HELP?" I DON'T WANNA!"

The other genin cried out in protest but Tazuna slammed his fist onto each of the genins' heads.

"You gaki! Construction work is a man's job! If you don't think you've got what it takes, then go ahead and run back to your mommas! Those girls over there work harder than you six combined!" Tazuna shouted pointing to a pair of young looking girls. They were wearing the same brown uniforms that the rest of the construction workers wore and carried several boxes of supplies

The girls looked over at the boys and laughed with a sneer on their faces seeing how childish the boys looked getting hit on the head by the old man. The sight of girls probably no older than them laughing at them got the boys all riled up.

"ALRIGHT THAT"S IT! PUT ME TO WORK!"

"YEAH! LET"S DO THIS!"

Tazuna smiled. "_Exactly as planned." _

Hinata smiled as she saw the boys play right into Tazuna's hands. "Hey Sakura do yo-?" Hinata turned around to see Sakura staring intently on her. "W-What?"

Sakura continued staring at her making her feel uncomfortable. "Something's wrong with you today...what is it?"

"What are you talking about? Hinata laughed nervously. "Nothing's wrong with me."

"Ha! I've known you far too long to not be able to tell that something's bothering you. Don't even try to lie to me."

Hinata turned away from Sakura, holding her head in a high manner. "I don't know what you're talking about." Hinata peeked a look at Sakura wondering if she had given up on her pursuing of details. She didn't want to worry Sakura about her scary vision that she had just experienced earlier that day or have her think that she was crazy or something.

Sakura continued staring her friend not believing one bit of Hinata's story. She thought quietly wondering what could be bothering her until she remembered something that seemed to make everything else fall into place.

"Hinata. Where did you go that one night before we got here to this village."

Hinata froze hearing Sakura's question. "uh...well...you know...um...the...the bathroom! Yes, the bathroom, i was at the bathroom haha..." she laughed nervously not wanting what really happened that night to be exposed to the truth.

Sakura smiled sensing that her suspicion was right. "Are you sure it wasn't to go visit a certain -."

Hinata instantly disappeared with a shun shin technique leaving Sakura surprised. "Oh you little!" She immediately took off after her best friend giving chase to the red faced Hinata.

…

"Well, well, those two ladies seem to be having fun. Don't you think Zabuza-san?" Haku asked turning around looking at his master. Zabuza was sitting on a stump wrapping bandages around his arms. They were on top of a hill that overlooked the entire village and the bridge giving them the perfect vantage point.

"Haku. The two kunoichi are yours. Blondie and the old man are mine."

Haku smiled. "What about the black hair?"

"He's all yours." Zabuza said standing up, placing his executioner's blade across his back. "Hidden Mist Jutsu." Unknown to everyone below them, a mysterious mist began to creep over the entire area.

…

Kitsune stopped feeling the memories of one his doppelgangers come back to him.

"What's wrong?" Hebi asked concernedly. Kitsune looked at him and tighten his arm guards. "There's a mysterious mist coming over where the kids are."

Hebi instantly knew that something was wrong. "Time to go to work." Kitsune nodded. The two had replenished their supplies at the anbu safe house that they had found deep inside the cave. They had exchanged their armors for newer and much less worn out pieces of equipment. As they finished packing their supplies, Hebi tossed him a ninjato much like the one on his back.

"You might need that if you your thinking on taking him on. Compared to his sword it's not much but it's better than the tanto."

Kitsune nodded. They exited the cave, hitting a switch so that the rock slid back into place covering the hidden safe house once more.

"Let's go."

…

Hinata stopped running seeing herself surrounded by a mysterious fog. "_Where did this come from?" _

She felt uncomfortable in the unnatural fog and immediately thought of the genin back with Tazuna.

"_Oh no_!"

"Sakura!" She yelled but as she turned around, Haku was standing right in front of her staring her straight in the eye

Hinata flinched, instinctively reached down for a weapon but Haku was already swinging a fist full of senbon at her throat.

"RAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Sakura smashed the ground between them causing the mysterious man to jump back to avoid being crushed. Sakura quickly stopped herself and managed to pivot herself so that she was able to slam her other fist into Haku's face. The force of the punch smashed Haku's mask and sent him flying across the ground.

"Sakura!"

The two kunoichi watched as Haku stood up wiping the blood from his nose and lips.

"Hinata." Sakura said without removing her eyes off the man. "Go find the boys."

Hinata shook her head. "You should go. My technique is made for countering weapons like his." She said staring at the senbon he was holding between his fingers.

"Look Hinata. There's no way i'll be able to find them in this fog. I can barely even see him over there. You have the best chance of finding them and protecting them."

Hinata bit her lip knowing that Sakura was right. She turned hesitatingly, reluctant to leave her best friend behind. "Stay safe okay?"

Sakura only tightened the gloves on her hand signaling that it was time for Hinata to make her escape. Hinata had to force herself to pull away but as she did Haku aimed his senbon at the black haired kunoichi but stopped as he jumped away just in time to avoid having a food cart thrown into his face.

"I don't think so! Your opponent is me!" She cried running at him with her fist poised to slam into his face once more.

Haku simply smiled and placed his hands together.

"Secret Jutsu: Crystal ice mirrors."

Sakura stopped as she saw mirrors made up of ice begin to surround her. Haku slipped into one of the mirrors and causing a reflection on all of them.

"Tell me, young kunoichi. You're a smart girl. Do you know how we execute prisoners in the mist village?"

Sakura found herself surrounded by Hakus, one for each mirror surronding her. "Death by a one hundred cuts."

A senbon flew from one of the mirrors, slicing through her skin causing her to yelp in pain.

"You've just experienced your first cut. Now just ninety-nine to go." He said smiling maliciously.

…

"Oh yeah? Try to lift this many then!" One of the genin grunted as he struggled to lift up six pieces of lumber while the girls from before watched him. The wood fell with a satisfied thud as the genin dusted himself off. "Beat that."

One of the girls smiled and lifted eight, two more than the genin. The genin groaned. They had been trying all day to beat these girls in terms of physical strength but...it wasn't working out so well.

Tazuna walked over to the group of kids carrying some logs on his shoulder. "You ladies hurry on home now. There's a mist coming in and i don't want you out here where it's dangerous." The girls nodded and began walking home but not before they stuck their tongues out at the boys.

"Hey? What the heck? Why can't we go home?" The genin cried.

Tazuna hit the genin on the head for asking such a stupid question. "Because, you're boys and your senseis are somewhere messing around meaning that i have to watch you six."

…

*BONK*

"OW! what the hell? Watch where you're swinging that!"

"I can't see with all this fog around!"

*BONK*

"OW!"

"That's it! Everybody just stop moving and drop your logs."

*THUNK*

"GAH! MY FOOT!"

"Hehehehe."

The boys turned around hearing a sinister laughter echoing around them. "Who's there!" They cried pulling out their kunai. They were looking up and down, left and right scanning for any sign of the location of the mysterious speaker.

"I'm hurt. Don't tell me you forgot me already?" the voice laughed.

"Zabuza..." Udon whispered under his breath.

"Hehehehe smart little boy. Now hand over the old man." Tazuna tensed up hearing that he was still after his life.

"Over my dead body!" One of the genin cried.

Zabuza smiled as he appeared in front of them. "I'd have thought you'd never ask."

…

Hinata was looking for the boys desperately when she saw them huddled in a group. She felt relieved seeing them safe but felt dread enter her as she saw a figure holding a large sword appear next to them.

"No!"

…

Zabuza raised his blade over his head as he prepared to perform a slashing cut at the genin. The genin jumped up seeing Zabuza appear right in front of them but stood their groun knowing full well that Tazauna was behind them. As Zabuza began to swing his sword downwards, he turned around hearing a female voice cry out.

"Twin lion fists!"

Hinata smashed into Zabuza knocking him into the ground and turned into water. _"What the?"_

"Hinata-sensei!" The genin yelled as they crashed into her, hugging her tightly.

"Are you ok?" She asked them. They nodded happily. "It's alright. It's going to be -." She looked up to see the water from the clone rushing up over them. She quickly pushed the genin away as the water surrounded her and formed a prison of water around her.

"Hinata-sensei!"

Hibiki got up and ran forward hoping to help her somehow but stopped seeing two figures rising out of the water from the ground. One held onto the prison holding it together while the other raised his blade over his head preparing to execute Hinata.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. You guys should have known better. Now, why don't we play a game?" Zabuza said appearing out of the mist. "You have five seconds to hand over the old man or the girl dies."

"5…"

The genin froze, unsure of what to do next. They couldn't just hand Tazuna over. It was their job to make sure nothing happened to him. But they just couldn't let Hinata-sensei die…"

"4…"

Hibiki ran forward to save Hinata was kicked in the stomach and sent flying back to the group, skidding across the ground."

"3…"

The genin threw shurikans and kunais at the clone holding the prison but Zabuza only used his sword to block the projectiles from reaching their target.

Zabuza laughed at their feeble attempt. "2…"

The genin gripped the kunais in their hands. "Rahhhh!" they screamed as they charged forward.

Using the flat side of his blade, Zabuza slammed the genin back away from the prison. "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" Both Udon and Konohamaru who had jumped up to avoid the blade were caught by the jutsu and sent crashing to the ground.

"1…"

The genin gasped as they lay on the ground struggling to get up. They looked up to see Hinata hitting the side of the prison, yelling at them to run away. They shook their heads refusing to leave her behind.

"Hinata-sensei!"

"0…"

Zabuza turned to his clones and a motion with his hand. The water clones looked at each other and turned their attention back to the imprisoned Kunoichi. The clone raised the blade over his head and began a downwards cutting motion poised for her head. Hinata looked at the boys one last time before closing her eyes. She remembered a long time ago, someone had told her that in the face of death, their life flashed before their very eyes.

She could recall the days of her horrifying childhood when she still lived with her father. Then came the joyues days spent training, laughing and crying in Kunoichi village with her friends. The joy of graduation from Kunoichi academy, the feel of success after her first mission and most recently the Tournament of fire.

It was her first time in the capital and the sight of it was more than she had imagined. It was absolutely beautiful with the city people dressed in all their fine robes. But most memorable were the glowing lanterns at night as they lit up the city. They gave the city a beautiful red hue which was even more fascinating to walk in.

Then… tournament day. The satisfaction of reigning victorious over her enemies left her with an indescribable feeling inside of her. She felt as if she was the king of the entire world.

Being champions of the tournament, the girls won the right to meet the fire daimyo in person although he wasn't what they had expected. He was fat, rude and thought himself to be the better than just about everybody. As disgusting as he was, a daimyo was a daimyo. Then as her life came around in full circle, she thought of…Kitsune.

Her first encounter with him had been brief but she was sure that she already hated his guts. Her first thought of him was _"Who the heck is this guy?"_ He was immature, brash and just plain annoying. Although he wore the uniform of a fully-fledged anbu corp member, he acted like a five year old, poking fun at her whenever he could. It was only when he had saved her life that she realized that behind that five year old was someone…else.

Maybe it was just his unnatural blond hair or his blue eyes but she found herself drawn more to him every day. There were the moments where he acted like a child but at the same time there where instances where she felt like the child and him the adult. She had never seen it coming but on the night before arriving to the village, he had displayed an overwhelming charisma that had swept past her emotional barriers and left her at his mercy.

Slowly but surely, she felt like she was picking away at his mask, piecing together who the person behind the mask really was like. A teardrop fell from her face as she regretted not being able to finish. She opened her eyes, looking at the boys who were still screaming her name. "Sayonara." She whispered to them.

*Whoosh! Thunk! Thunk*

The Zabuza clones dissolved into water as the shurikan struck them in the back. With no one holding the water prison together, it followed suit and began to fall apart sending Hinata falling unexpectedly to the ground face first. Hinata held up her arms to her face to block the impact but instead felt herself lifted into the air as Kitsune held her in his arms.

"Miss me?" He whispered to her as she stared at stared at him with surprised eyes.

Zabuza smirked. "Well, well, well. The hero finally appears."

Kitsune placed Hinata upright on her feet saying, "Grab the boys as soon as you can and get them out of here."

"What about you? And Sakura?"

"I wouldn't worry about her. She's in good hands."

…

Haku just stared as he looked on the ground seeing the ninety nine senbon on the ground. Hebi swung his sword and sheathed it in one fluid motion. "Impressive." Haku complimented him. "I wonder how -."

Hebi didn't wait for him to finish and threw a kunai attached with an explosive tag towards the mirror. The mirror exploded but as the dust cleared the mirror showed no sign of damage. Haku laughed. "These mirrors are indestructible. They -."

Sakura ran forward and smashed it with her fist sending it crashing to the ground. "So much for indestructible." She laughed but Haku only smiled.

"Boom." He whispered. Hebi rushed forward sensing odd about the mirrors but the shattered mirror pieces on the ground shined a bright light and ignited, engulfing Sakura in an explosion.

…

Both kitsune and Zabuza clashed in the air multiple times, striking their blades against one another.

"You've got balls if you're willing to go sword to sword against me!" Zabuza roared madly.

The genin were watching wide eyes as they saw the sparks from the exchange between the two deadly warriors. Hinata ran toward them shouting for them to get the hell out of there.

Tazuna had to hit a couple of them on the head to bring them back to the real world. "C'mon you gaki! If you want to die here be my guest but me? I'm living for another 100 years!" As the group ran for safety, the two ninja broke off from each other standing 5 meters apart.

"Ah, so that's you plan." Zabuza said as he watched them. "No matter. Once I've killed you, I'll make sure to take my time killing them."

"That's if you kill me first." Kitsune spun around his blade and thrust it behind him, stabbing through a Zabuza clone who had attempted to surprise him. "and for your sake, you better have some better tricks up your sleeve."

Zabuza smiled expecting this. "How about this?" He whispered as the mist around him began to thicken and hide him from view.

"Secret Ninja technique: Silent Killing."

Kitsune turned around hearing Zabuza's voice behind. The voiced laughed as Zabuza watched Kitsune try to ascertain his location. Kitsune felt his senses failing him as he could no longer feel his surroundings. _"It must be this god forsaken mist…"_

He heard a twig snap behind and instantly turned around using his ninjato to slice right through Zabuza. Zabuza simply grinned as he turned into water and fell to the ground.

"Over here…" he whispered causing Kitsune to turn around.

*SLASH!*

…

Hebi flew out of the dust of smoke as he held the unconscious Sakura in his arms. As he laid her down, he saw that her skin had been blackened and as was her face. She was barely breathing as Hebi checked her pulse. Hebi looked up seeing the mist begin to thicken. "Look's Zabuza-san is getting serious over there. Maybe I should -."

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!"

The mirrors were swallowed up in a huge fireball but as the flames began to die down, the mirrors were still there showing no signs of melting any time soon. Haku only frowned as he watched Hebi's feeble attempt to destroy the mirrors. "I was serious when I said that there mirrors couldn't be destroyed. I was just letting your pink haired Kunoichi have a bit a fun. Sorry."

...

"Drip…Drip…Drip…"

Both Kitsune and Zabuza were staring into each other's eyes as they both struggled to maintain their hold on the sword between them. Zabuza had caught Kitsune by surprise slicing through his chest piece. But luckily for Kitsune, hearing Zabuza's voice behind him made him turn around just in time to grab hold of the blade just as he felt the blade rip through his armor.

"Ngh…." Kitsune grunted as he felt the sword cut deeper into his chest. Zabuza was grinning maliciously as he continued to put pressure on the sword.

"Drip…Drip…Drip…"

Blood was dripping from Kitsune's chest as he struggled to halt it from entering his body any more than it already had while Zabuza continued putting pressure on the blade so that it would sink deeper into Kitsune's flesh.

They were at a standstill for at least a minute before Kitsune removed the blade from his chest causing some blood to gush out from the open wound. Zabuza broke off the engagement sensing that he no longer had the upper hand.

Kitsune fell to one knee as he placed his hand over the wound. Looking at it, his hand was covered with blood but he could tell that the wound was not deep and therefore not life threatening. Zabuza dragged a finger across the blade catching some of the blood on the tip of his finger. "Looks like I overestimated you bit. I'd thought you to be much more of a challenge than this."

Watching Kitsune stand back up on two legs left a smile on his face. "Good. Good. I wouldn't want my fun to end too fast! Hehehe."

…

Hebi smiled as he saw Hebi's shoulders begin to shake. "Aw? You're not scared are you? Do you fear dying that much? Don't worry it'll be over soon."

Hebi let loose a menacing laugh causing Haku to narrow his eyes. 'What's so funny?"

Hebi was chuckling evilly as Haku just stared at him. "You're right. It will be over soon." Hebi stuck his hand inside a pouch pulling out a white card. Tossing it towards one of the mirrors, he asked "Do you recognize that symbol?"

Haku glanced at the card momentarily before turning his attention back to Hebi. "What is the importance of a stupid little f.-."

He stopped as he looked back at the card and took a closer look at it. On it was a red fan with a white handle. "A red fan…Black hair… superhuman reflexives…" Looking up at the black haired anbu, he saw that Hebi had slid his mask off to the left side of his face revealing a red eye with three tiny little black dots in the center marking him as a member of the dreaded Uchiha Clan.

The three tiny black dots began spin in a circle until finally they formed a black pinwheel in the center of the eye. Haku had been so mesmerized by the sight of an extinct bloodline that by the time he realized what was happening it was already too late.

Hebi closed his eye for a brief moment before unleashing…

"AMATERASU!"

Haku flinched as the corner of his shirt was caught aflame. He instinctively used his hand to put it out but instead, the black flame caught his hand on fire. The black colored flame began to spread and cover Haku's entire body causing him to scream in agony.

…

Zabuza turned hearing the unholy screams of his friend in the distance. A kunai flew by his face clipping him on the cheek. "Don't lose focus now." Kitsune remarked. He reached under his ripped chest piece and unclipped it sending it falling to the ground.

"You look confused as to what's happening over there. Allow me to explain. The anbu corps in Konoha are forbidden from using any ninjustu's that are unique to us. Now, should the situation be favorable, we can find loopholes or opportunities where we can freely use our techniques without being seen."

Zabuza's eyes widened as he realized his mistake. "The mist…"

Kitsune chuckled as he removed his mask shocking Zabuza as he saw that behind the mask lay a young fresh faced youth.

"Why are you removing your mask…?" He asked cautiously. The boy smiled.

"Another rule in the anbu corp is that we always keep out identities a secret."

"Wait…" Zabuza said as he felt that he had seen the fresh faced youth before.

"But if the situation arises where we do have our identities discovered…" Kitsune continued

"No…it can't be…" Zabuza muttered.

Kitsune smiled and dropped his mask to the ground. The world seemed to move in slow motion as Zabuza watched the mask fall to the ground. It seemed to fall forever until finally the mask hit the ground with soft ding.

Whoosh the wind went as the leaves on the ground were lifted into the air briefly. Zabuza had only blinked for a moment but Kitsune had disappeared and reappeared behind him, pressing a kunai against his throat. "We kill all witnesses."

Zabuza lowered his sword as he felt defeat sink into his limbs. There's only one jutsu in the world that let you disappear and reappear at the speed of light and only one man capable of using it. "The Yellow flash of Konoha…" He whispered.

'You've heard of my father. I'm grateful." Kitsune commented.

"We were told that he had a son but it was believed that he had no talent for ninjustu…"

Kitsune smiled again. "Think of it as…a village secret."

"To think that the child of the Yellow Flash and that Demon is standing in front me…"

Kitsune used the kunai to raise Zabuza's head, hearing the mention of the word Demon and looked at him with killer eyes. "Demon…?"

Zabuza smiled realizing that the boy had no idea what he was talking about. "You don't know?"

"Know what?"

Zabuza began laughing hysterically. "Oh nothing…just that you don't know about your… heritage."

Kitsune pulled Zabuza closer so Zabuza was staring straight into his glaring eyes. "What heritage?"

Zabuza chuckled quietly. "Long ago, there was a mythical beast known as the Ten-tailed beast who ravaged the land. The great and almighty -."

"I already know about the sage of six paths. Tell me what this all has to do with me!" Kitsune shouted

"Ooh…Anxious aren't you." Zabuza teased him. "Don't worry I'll get to it… now where was I…ah yes…the great and almighty sage of the six paths, the first ninja. For nine days, and ten nights they battled for supremacy however, even the almighty sage of six paths could not defeat him. Left with no choice he sealed the best inside himself. But as the sage's life came to an end, he split the beast into nine separate demons called Bjiuu."

"Now as time went on, stories such as entire villages disappearing overnight or young girls being kidnapped as brides were often associated with the Bjiuu. Then every once in a while, you got a ridiculous story that circulated around the world such as someone managing to kill or even managing to enslave one of these mythical beasts."

Zabuza tightened his grip and raised his sword as Kitsune listened intently to his story. "Now coincidently there was another story circulating the world at the same, a story of a woman so beautiful, she was thought to be a goddess trapped in human form. This beautiful young woman possessing hair as red as the sun was in fact one of the nine demons of power but even more surprising was that this woman was in love with a young man. Together they had a child and lived happily ever after…at least for a while. For the child unable to control the power he received from his mother killed both his parents."

Kitsune had narrowed his eyes not quite understanding. "What's your point?"

Zabuza's shoulder began to shake as he held his head down. Looking up, he had a wild grin on his face as he felt victory within his reach. "MY POINT IS THAT YOU ARE THAT CURSED CHILD AND THAT YOU KILLED YOUR PARENTS, UZUMAKI NARUTO!" He laughed manically pushing Naruto away, lifting his sword up overhead.

"Lies…" Naruto whispered.

"SSSSSHHHHHHHH!"

Zabuza fell to his knees as a gush of blood erupted from his neck. As Zabuza lay on the ground He smiled._ "You may have won the battle young shinobi but I won the war…hehehe…"_ Zabuza thought as he closed his eyes.

Although Zabuza couldn't see his apprentice he looked in the direction of where his apprentice lay. _"I'm sorry Haku…"_ he thought one last time and with that, the man known as the Demon Of the Mist passed away.


	8. Bad Luck

Tournament of Fire Chp. 8

Iruka sighed as he straightened a pile of papers against his deck

"Finally." He muttered as he stretched his arms. It had been nothing but paperwork at the academy today and he didn't want to see another piece of paper for a long time. As he got up and pushed his chair in, he could see someone walking towards the academy out of his office window.

"_Strange. Who could be out at this hour? It's the middle of the night." _

Iruka quickly hurried down the stairs and out the front entrance to identify the suspicious figure. He watched closely for any striking features of the person but only shook his head as he saw his old pupil, Naruto walking towards him.

"Naruto, what are you doing? A young man like yourself shouldn't be out this late."

"I just had something on my mind and couldn't sleep so i figured that i may as well take a stroll around the village." He replied oddly..

Iruka raised his eyebrow. He found it hard to believe that his old pupil who he knew to be one of the most laidback people in the entire village couldn't go to sleep because something was on his mind.

"Oh yeah? What is it? Maybe you could look it up at the library here in the academy. It is the biggest one in the village." Iruka laughed because he knew for certain that reading was one of Naruto's most hated activities.

"Sure."

Iruka looked back at the young man as his jaw dropped in disbelief.

"uh...um ok. Why don't you follow me then i guess..." Iruka started to lead Naruto into the academy before asking, "what exactly did you want to look up again?"

"Well nothing too serious...just anything about the bjiuu and any stories, legends that are related to them."

Iruka froze as he heard Naruto.

"Sensei?"

Iruka turned around with weak grin on his face. "Um... i don't think we have any books on them, Naruto. Sorry."

Naruto studied Iruka's face and saw the sweat dripping down his face. He smiled.

"It's alright. Wasn't that important anyway. Well thanks anyways."

Iruka waved as he watched Naruto leave. As Naruto turned around the corner, Iruka's smile disappeared.

"_He knows." _

Iruka immediately shunshined away to inform Jiriaya about Naruto that their was a problem at hand and that someone was bound to get hurt.

…

Hinata's eyes slowly opened as she heard knocking on the her door. She looked up and could see the morning rays of sunshine coming in through the blinds of the window. _"Ugh...morning already..."_

The knocking continued to which she grabbed a pillow and covered her head trying to block out the sound so that she could go back to bed.

"Hinata..." Sakura moaned. "Door..."

"Mmgh." Hinata replied.

It was only yesterday that they had returned to the village after their mission in the land of waves. The two teams had arrived late at night and everyone was exhausted. Not wanting to face her father any time soon, Hinata decided to crash at Sakura's apartment for the night, sleeping on the couch in the living room.

"You get it...it's your house."

"Yeah... but who did i let crash at my place for the night...?"

Hinata lay on the couch with her face buried in the pillow. She rose up and flung it at Sakura who was sleeping on the couch opposite to her, hitting her on the back with a soft thud.

"Ow." Sakura moaned quietly.

Hinata started walking towards the door angrily not looking very pleasant.

"_Darn it. Why would anybody be up this early? When i see who, i'm going to give them a piece of my mind."_

The knocking continued again causing Hinata swing the door open.

"What do you want?" She yelled at the stranger at the door.

Only it wasn't a stranger. It was the young man from the ramen shop that she had met on her first day back in Konoha, Naruto.

"_What's he doing here?"_

He instantly covering his nose seeing the young Hyuga girl in the door.

"What's wrong with...?" She muttered not very pleased to see him. "Is...is that...blood?" She asked suspiciously.

Naruto looked up and down, quickly shaking his head left and right. Hinata saw the strange movement and looked down. Her eyes widened as she realized that she had completely forgotten to dress "properly" before coming to the door, and here she was dressed only in a small white t-shirt with her underwear on standing right before a man she barely knew.

"Kyaa!" She cried as she grabbed the bottom side of her shirt and tried to pull it down to hide her underwear.

"Uh...Do you need some -?" Naruto tried to offer but Hinata only looked up angrily at him with tears in her eyes.

…

Sasuke took a bite of dango at the nearby dango store as he watched the sun rise up behind the national monument of Konoha. The sun's rays shined beautifully on the faces of hokages past bathing them in white light.

He looked around for Naruto wondering where he had gone. As he reached for his cup of tea it suddenly cracked.

"_Bad luck..." _He thought._ "Damn it." _

He took a sip and cringed at the taste. "This isn't mine..."

Just then he flinched hearing a loud smack that had resounded throughout the entire village. He looked suspiciously towards the direction of the sound and then back at the cup.

"This isn't mine." he chuckled realizing the source of the loud smack as he set down Naruto's cup and reached for his own, taking a long satisfying sip.

End - Chapter 8

AN: Hey guys. Sorry i haven't uploaded up in a while. i've been real busy after 2 month's time and this is all i've really gotten. So from now on i'll start uploading in tiny chapters so that you guys have at least something to read and don't have to wait every like month for an upload.

-BakaDango


	9. Ramen Boys Pt2

Tournament of Fire - Chp 9

Ramen Boys Pt 2

Teardrops fell from Hinata's face as she struggled to keep her eyes open. The tears in her eyes were beginning to blur her vision so she quickly wiped her face with the sleeve of her shirt wiping away the tears.

Sakura lifted the curtains up and walked through a door with a pot of water in her hands when she noticed Hinata crying.

"H-Hinata...are...are you ok?"

"Yeah...it-it's just...it's just these damn onions!" Hinata cried.

_...Earlier that day..._

"Pfft..." Sasuke snickered as he tried to hide a laugh as he watched Naruto walk in with a large red mark on his face. Behind him, Sasuke could see Hinata and Sakura following close behind who were not looking very happy to be awake so early in the morning.

Naruto stopped and turned around to the girls, arms crossed.

"You two owe us big for the damages you caused the other day." He announced. "Tsunade-sama told us that you were to be put straight to work once you returned from your mission. Any questions?"

The two girls only glared at him before looking away from him with a quick, "Hmmf!" coming from both of them.

Naruto only tapped his fingers on his elbow thinking. "Alright. Sakura you are to go with Sasuke and help him with his duties and Hinata..." He only continued tapping his fingers making Hinata's spine tingle.

..._Back to the Present..._

Hinata jumped up at the sound of a loud bang behind her. Looking behind herself, she saw that Naruto had came in and dropped a large basket with even more onions in them than the last.

She groaned eyeing the basket. "Really? There's more?" she cried. "Onions don't even go in ramen!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her. "You know that you have to don't to do it if you don't want to."

Hinata's eyes brightened up for a moment.

"It's just that i might just go pay a visit to tsunade-sama after work and -."

"Fine! I'll do it!" She cried as she grabbed another onion and turned around continuing her cutting. As Naruto left the kitchens he could hear the sounds of Hinata's sniffles from the kitchen which made a smile appear on his face.

…

"Ah! Finally!" Both Hinata and Sakura cried as they collapsed onto one of the serving tables.

Teuchi laughed as he watched the two.

"I see you two have found some new recruits for the job."

Both Naruto and Sasuke looked up at the old man and smiled. "Not exactly." They all laughed.

…

Hinata looked over at the three men hearing their laughs.

"What they laughing about...?" She grumbled glaring at them placing her chin in the palm of her hand.

"_Why is he so mean?" _She thought eyeing Naruto.

It was if he enjoyed tormenting her. Sure she had wronged before but that was no reason for him to wrongfully torment her. As she watched him, she noticed the fake smile on his face. It frightened her some strange reason. His smile was strange and unnatural. It was if the smile on his face was purely for pretending that he was happy.

She continued watching them when her eyes suddenly caught the sight of Naruto's blond hair. Lowering her eyes she found herself staring into Naruto's face, particularly his blue eyes. His eyes seemed to be like a vast ocean which if she wasn't careful enough, she could get lost forever.

Suddenly his eyes locked with hers and Hinata found herself staring at Kitsune. She sat up from the table seeing the anbu appear out of nowhere. She blinked her eyes not sure if what she was real. "Kitsune..." She whispered seeing him dressed in full anbu gear and his trademark mask.

Suddenly she felt a jerk on her shoulder and looked back at Sakura.

"Hinata, what did you just say?" Sakura asked holding her shoulder.

Hinata turned around, looking back at Kitsune except, he was gone and in place of him was Naruto who was quietly listening to Teuchi.

"I...he..."

Sakura stared at her with wide eyes. 'Hinata...you can't possibly still be thinking that he's..." she asked gesturing towards Naruto.

Hinata only looked at her guiltily.

"Hinata!" Sakura moaned. "No...! Jus- Just...No! We've already been through this!"

"But-But Sakura. I-I saw him. I know it's him! Maybe he was using some jutsu to-."

Sakura shook her head. "Hinata, i think you're putting too much thought into this. look! He's a ramen boy! Not a ninja."

Sakura let go of her seeing Hinata hang her head in defeat. "You're becoming obsessed with this. What's wrong with you?"

…

Naruto looked over at the two girls fighting . "What are those two doing...?" He muttered.

Teuchi laughed as he continued to talk with Sasuke. "Well i suggest you get those two in shape because, we're about to open up for rush hour and it's going to get plenty busy around here. By the way, Naruto."

Naruto looked up at the sound of his name.

"We're supposed to go to the academy today and host a special class about cooking ramen for the young ones but i'm not really feeling good and well... and Sasuke and kids don't really tend to make a good match."

Naruto stared at Teuchi before finally sighing. "Alright i get it. I'll go."

…

Hinata was still listening to Sakura's lecture when she saw Naruto leave out the front door.

Turning to her best friend Hinata cried. "Just you watch. I'm going to prove you wrong."

"Wait!" Sakura cried as she watched Hinata begin to move for the door. "Where are you going?" but Hinata was already gone.

Sakura rolled her eyes and groaned. She quickly ran after Hinata and grabbed hold of the door handle when Sasuke stopped her, slamming his hand on the door closing it shut.

"And where do you think you're going?" He asked her plainly. He hid a smile as Sakura seemed to shake in fear before him.

…

Hinata followed Naruto throughout the entire town taking note of everything that he was doing. There was something fishy going on as there was no pattern to his movements as to where he was going. After almost an hour had passed by, Naruto began heading for the ninja academy. As they arrived, a smile lit up on Hinata's face.

"_I knew it. A civilian has no business visiting a ninja academy unless they're a ninja themself! Oh Sakura, I told you so!" _

She continued to watch Naruto when she lost sight of him as he turned around the corner and went through the academy gates. She quickly hurried along and placed herself against the wall. She was breathing erratically, anxious to expose Naruto for who he was.

However, she quickly heard laughter which surprised her. Peeking around the corner, she saw children jumping and climbing onto Naruto as they laughed and cried,

"Naruto Nii-chan! Naruto Nii-chan! You're back!"

As Hinata continued watching the children swarm Naruto, she felt a warm feeling inside herself. The sound of his laugh as it came from his mouth was like music to her ears. She had never seen Naruto smiling like he was now the only smile that she ever saw on his face being the one that was either the sarcastic smile that he always gave her or the angry frown when disappointed with her.

As the children continued to pounce on their favorite visitor, one of the children spotted Hinata peeking from the corner.

"Naruto Nii-chan! Is that your girlfriend?"

Naruto looked up hearing the question. He looked surprised to see Hinata there and stood up.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be back at the shop?" He asked her as he walked over.

"I...uh...you...um..." Hinata stuttered seeing Naruto walking towards her. Coming back to her senses, she realized that she had just blown her cover.

"I...I'm going back!" She announced and turned around but Naruto stopped her.

"Hold on!" He said grabbing hold of her hand. She didn't expect the contact and when she looked back Naruto, his face made her flush brightt red.

"You still didn't answer my question."

"Well...i..."

The horde of children ran up to them and grabbed hold of Naruto crying out,"C'mon! Let's go! Iruka sensei's waiting for us!"

Hinata saw her chance and turned to escape when she realized that Naruto was still holding her hand.

"Oh no you don't."Naruto said to her as he saw her struggling.

Hinata desperately tried to free her hand from his grip which felt awfully familiar but he was too strong for her. Her escape was truly foiled when the rest of the children grabbed hold of her as well and dragged her along, saying

"C'mon! You too, Neechan!"

"_Oh no...what have i gotten myself into?" _She thought to herself dreading what was next to come.

…

"Alright everyone! Settle down. We have some special guests here today!" Iruka announced.

"Hai!" the small children replied as they settled into their seats.

Iruka turned to Naruto and Hinata who had a nervous smile on her face. "Um...They're all yours Naruto and..."

Hinata saw Iruka looking at her and quickly bowed. "Uh...Hinata, sir. I've just arrived from Kunoichi village. Nice to meet you." She quickly bowed again.

Naruto watched the exchange between the two. He smiled seeing her act so innocent.

Here she was playing the cute and harmless little girl when the Hinata that he knew was short-tempered and hot headed quickly recalling the middle finger she had given him before setting out on their mission.

"_She's actually kind of cute when she's not angry."_ He thought quietly to himself watching her.

"Well it's nice to meet you, Hinata. Welcome to Konoha. I trust my old student here has been nice to you."

"_Old student?" _She thought. She took a quick glance at Naruto who watching the two. _"Alright. This is what i'm looking for." _Hinata thought slyly to herself remembering her original mission of exposing Naruto's true identity. .

Hinata had a smile on her face as she looked back at Iruka. "Of course. He's even gotten me a part time job at Ichiraku."

That surprised Naruto, hearing Hinata praise him. _"What is this girl playing at...?"_ He thought suspiciously.

"That's good!" Iruka commented.

Hinata nodded and looked back at Naruto. "You never told that me you were a ninja? What rank are you? Chunin? Jonin? Anbu?" She asked stressing out the last word.

"_You little minx."_ Naruto thought himself. "_So that's what you're playing at huh? And here i thought you were just an average run of the mill kunoichi."_

"Naruto never actually graduated." Iruka chimed in. "He never really had the potential to become a ninja." Iruka said.

Hinata looked at Iruka with a blank stare as her hopes came crashing down.

"_What...?" _

She turned back to Naruto who simply shrugged his shoulders. "It's true." He said.

"Oh...i'm so sorry... I shouldn't have asked." She quietly replied. "Um...excuse me, where's the little girls room?"

"Down the hallway on your left."

"Thank you."

As Hinata entered the bathroom she closed the stall and sat on the toilet.

"_No. No. No. No. No! It's...Its gotta be...It can't be...It's him. The similarities are too great! it can't all be a coincidence!"_

After a couple moments she sighed feeling defeated. Her theory had completely fallen apart. "Maybe it is just a coincidence." She muttered to herself followed by a sigh.

...

Hinata watched as Naruto led the kids into a lesson about making their very own ramen. She still couldn't get over the fact Naruto wasn't Kitsune. All the clues pointed at him. As she watched him, she found herself surprised seeing that he was very gentle and considerate with the kids. He never yelled at them and took his time with them. It was a kind and gentle side of him that she did not expect to see from him.

"Hinata."

Hinata came back to her senses hearing her name. Naruto grabbed her attention with a wave of his hand. She walked over wondering what he wanted.

"Hinata, can you help Nana here with her noodles? She's almost done rolling her noodles. All you need to do is cut them into thin strips for her."

"Wait, but-." However, Naruto left her alone with the little girl and went off to grab something outside of the room. Hinata sighed and turned to the little girl as she rolled her dough.

Hinata had never really spent any time with children by herself, finding herself feeling a bit awkward. "Hi there." She said to the tiny little girl but got no response.

"My name's Hinata's what's yours?"

Still the little girl didn't reply back to her, which made Hinata feel that she was doing something wrong.

"Hinata Nee-chan."

Hinata turned around to a little boy who was covered in flour from head to toe. "Nana doesn't like you."

Hinata's heart nearly broke then and there. She hadn't even held a decent conversation with the little girl and here she was being told that she didn't like her. "W-why not?"

The little boy smiled. "It's cause she likes Naruto Nii-chan and doesn't want you to steal him away from her."

"No i don't!" Nana quickly yelled at the boy which surprised Hinata.

The little boy got up and started to do a little dance all the while singing, "Liar, Liar pants on fire."

"Hey, Hey! Calm down you two." Hinata said as she pried the two apart. As the boy sat down back at his desk, Hinata looked back at Nana. "Is that true? You think that i'm going to take Naruto away from you?"

The little girl looked down at her dough with a sad look on her face.

"Hey, don't worry. I would never do that ok? He's all yours. In fact, if you want i'll even help you get him to be your boyfriend if you want."

Nana looked up Hinata with wide eyes. "Really?"

"Really, Really." Hinata said with a smile.

Nana held up her tiny little pinkie. "Pinkie promise."

Hinata smiled again, "Pinkie Promise." she said locking pinkies with the young girl. Nana then held up a plate of rolled out dough for Hinata. "All done."

Hinata couldn't stop smiling. Making friends with this one little girl felt like a great triumph for her. She was ready to take on anything now.

"Hinata Nee-chan! Help me next!"

"No way! She's helping me next!"

"Hold on, hold on." She laughed as she saw groups of children coming up to her with their own plates of dough.

Naruto walked with a large box in his hands when he saw Hinata being surrounded by children. She was laughing as the children swarmed her asking her questions like where she came from or if she was a ninja. Hearing such a beautiful laugh was surprising for him. Now that he thought about it he had never heard laugh before so this was his first time hearing it.

Not paying attention he suddenly crashed into the coat hanger in the front of the room. Everyone in the room jumped hearing the loud crash but when the children saw that Naruto dressed in a new outfit made up of coats, the children began laughing at him including Hinata. Hinata immediately got up and walked over asking him if he was ok.

"Ugh...yeah...must have tripped over something i guess."

Hinata chuckled. "Here." She said offering him a hand.

As he grabbed her hand, Hinata grunted as she struggled to pull Naruto up not expecting him to be so heavy. Just as she was almost done, Hinata felt a sudden tug and soon found herself falling towards the ground with Naruto.

His foot had been on top of a coat the entire time and that was enough for him to slip and fall down, dragging Hinata along with him. The two collided head on with each other sending the coats flying up into the air.

As the coats settled to the ground, the kids watching the spectacle sat wided eyed with open mouths as they saw the two locking lips with each other. Even Iruka seemed to be speechless not ever expecting such event to occur in his room.

Both Naruto and Hinata looked each other in the eye for a moment before backing away from each other as quickly as possible.

"I...uh..." Hinata quickly stuttered before covering her mouth with both hands as if she was protecting her lips from further harm.

Naruto, just as equally as speechless as Hinata, only scratched his head not really expecting the surprise kiss. "Uh..."

The kids still watching started smiling and altogether they started singing, "Naruto and Hinata sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes -."

HInata completely embarrassed jumped up waving her hands. "Wait! It's not what you think!" But still the kids continued singing their song laughing all the while. Naruto watching Hinata freak out in front of the children, started laughing as well joining the children.

Hinata turned around at Naruto surprised to hear him laugh. She began to glow bright red as she felt totally singled out.

"Now, Now. Come on. Quiet down." Iruka said. Hinata turned thankful that at least there was at least one person here helping her out. However, Iruka looked at both Hinata and Naruto simply saying, "And you two. Keep it in the bedroom, okay?"

Hinata, whose face was completely red now, seemed to short circuit for a moment and fainted, too embarrassed to stand up any longer.

...

"Hinata."

Hinata opened her eyes hearing her name. She sat up slowly not remembering where she was. Looking around, she realized that she was still in the classroom only that it was empty except for Naruto and herself.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and stared at her. "Are you alright?"

Hinata grabbed her head feeling a migraine coming along but replied, "Uh...yeah...just a little woozy i guess..."

She looked up at him and asked, "What time is it?"

Naruto smiled. "It's almost past 7. The sun's already coming down. See?" He opened the blinds for her to see outside.

She looked out the window seeing the sun setting in the distance. She turned to him once more.

"Why are you still here then?"

Naruto looked at her strangely wondering if Hinata was thinking straight.

"Well i couldn't just leave you here could i? C'mon, i'll take you home." He said offering her a hand. Hinata started to reach for it but found herself hesitating.

"Don't worry." Naruto told her. "I'll make sure not to drop you." he said obviously poking fun at her. Hinata frowned and immediately grabbed hold of his hand not wanting to seem hesitant.

…

As the two started walking in the streets, Naruto noticed Hinata swaying left and right. He rushed forward to catch her as she swayed too much to the left falling over.

"Whoa there!" He said as he caught her in his arms. "You're definitely not okay."

"I'm-I'm fine." Hinata told him to which Naruto simply shook his head. Suddenly Hinata felt herself be picked up as Naruto held her up like a princess.

"W-what are you doing!" She cried in surprise. She immediately began shove her hands into Naruto's face attempting to push him away.

"C-calm down!" Naruto cried as he struggled see where he was going.

"Let me go!" Hinata cried again, blushing bright red. _"Oh please don't let anyone see me like this..." _she thought completely embarrassed.

Finally after a couple minutes of arguing, Naruto eventually dropped her on a bench causing Hinata to cry out in surprise. She rubbed her butt feeling that Naruto dropped her a bit too hard even though she had begged him to.

Finally opening her eyes, she looked around not recognizing the surroundings.

"Where...where are we?" She asked seeing herself surrounded by playground equipment.

Suddenly she froze as she found herself staring face to face with Naruto. He placed his head gently on her forehead checking her temperature as Hinata sat completely frozen as she continued to look at him.

She felt her heart beat faster and faster until finally Naruto lifted his head away from her's standing up with his arms crossed.

"Well i don't think you have the flu but... then again I'm no doctor."

He began to think what he could possibly do to help her when he snapped his fingers realizing the perfect solution.

"Stay here. I'll be back!" He announced and was off.

…

Moments later, Hinata watched Naruto come back with an ice cream cone, one in each hand. He held up one of the them for Hinata to take.

"What's this for?" She asked.

"Do you need a reason to eat some ice cream?" He asked back.

"Well...no..."

Hinata looked at it for a moment before taking it. "Thank you." She quietly said as the two sat together on the bench and watched the sun set in the distance as they quietly ate their treats.

"You know... i used to play here when i was smaller..."

Hinata looked towards him hearing him speak

"I still remember running around and playing tag with all the kids from the academy when school was over. Well that was still when i was actually still in the academy." He laid back his head to look at the cherry blossom tree above him.

"I actually planted this one myself."

Hinata looked up eyeing the pink petals of the tree as the tree began to shake as a breeze came in.

"They're beautiful." She whispered as she watched the tree. As Naruto looked back at Hinata, the setting sun seemed to shine down her, highlighting her bluish black hair and her pale eyes. He suddenly felt a funny feeling in his gut and swallowed.

"Hinata."

Hinata looked down back at him, giving him her attention.

"Hmm?"

"What are you doing tomorrow?" He asked her.

"Tomorrow?" She stuttered. "Uh... I don't know, why?"

"Would...would you like to go to the Fox Festival with me?"

Hinata was taken aback by Naruto's sudden request. "The-The Fox Festival?" She managed to say. He nodded at her.

Hinata was surprised. _"Is..is he asking me out on a...date?"_

As she thought about her answer, a strong wind came in and scattered the sakura petals above them, floating them down towards the two. Hinata watched as one plopped itself onto Naruto's nose causing herself to let out a small giggle.

Seeing the petal land on his face, she found her answer. Plucking it off his face, she said with a smile, "Why not?"

Suddenly the wind came back and caught Hinata's hair whipping it up into a big mess.

Naruto burst out with a laugh seeing her hair flip up into a big mess. Hinata instinctively grabbed her hair and pulled it down so that it wouldn't fly up anymore. Turning to Naruto, she puffed up her cheeks unamused by Naruto's sudden outburst. She took the rest of her ice cream and dropped it on his head.

Naruto flinched feeling the cold ice cream as it slowly began to move it's way down his head.

His reaction caused her to burst out laughing as he slowly pulled the ice cream off his head. The look on his face was priceless.

Naruto had a roguish smile on his face as he dropped Hinata's ice cream on the ground. Hinata stopped laughing as she took one look at Naruto, carefully eyeing the ice cream he was still holding.

Naruto quickly lunged at her aiming the ice cream for her clothes but Hinata was too quick, quickly jumping out of her seat. Naruto quickly chased after her jumping up from his seat causing to Hinata to cry out with laughter as she watched him start to chase after her.

As the two frolicked in the playground, Hiashi was walking by, followed closely behind by the hyuga elders.

"Hiashi, how is your daughter? I've heard she is quite the beautiful woman now." One asked.

"She is good and yes, she is quite beautiful. She looks very much like her mother."

Hiashi seemed to enter a dream as he remembered Haruka. However, his dream was briefly interrupted when one of the elders came up behind him with a proposition.

"Hiashi. Your daughter is of marrying age now. My son, Ryuho, would make a great marriage partner for her."

The rest of the elders turned and glared. "Insolent dog!" One yelled. "How dare you make such a proposition! You're only from the branch family! Learn your place! Besides my son Kazuma would be a much better match than your son."

There was a roar as the elders fought between themselves on whose son would be a better match as Hinata's husband. Hiashi looked on disapprovingly watching the elders.

"_Hyena's the lot of them." _He thought to himself. He knew the elders cared nothing for his daughter and only saw her as a way for their own families to rise up in the ranks of the Hyuga Clan. If he could he would have done away with them years ago but he needed their support if he wanted to remain the head of the Hyuga clan.

It used to be that in the ancient days, succeeding clan heads would be the eldest son of the current head. However when Hashirama Senju, the first hokage, created Konoha, he had it decided that the heads of each clan would be decided by majority vote among the elders of the clan just as how the people of konoha decided him to be Hokage.

Of course, this did not really change anything as the elders of each clan usually elected the sons of the current head as the next head. Hiashi's family was the same and had been the head of the Hyuga clan since the early days of Konoha however that could all change, especially since Hiashi had no real heir.

Hinata and Hanabi were girls and thus ineligible for being the next head. He would have loved to pass on the title of clan leader to one of his daughters but he knew the elders would have none of that. Old men the lot of them clinging to the ways of the past.

Still deep in thought, Hiashi suddenly heard laughing. He turned around, looking for the source.

"I...i know this laugh..." He whispered.

He closed his eyes listening to the sweet soft laugh. He recognized it for he could remember hearing it through the halls of his home long, long ago. Then, he remembered one day the sweet laugh being replaced with the sound of weeping. His heart ached as he continued to remember soon after there was no sound after that, neither crying or laughing. Just his quiet footsteps.

"Otou-sama...?"

Hiashi opened his eyes. He saw Hinata standing a few meters away in what looked like an old playground.

"Hinata? What are you doing here? I thought you were -." He stopped as he suddenly saw Naruto with his daughter. His eyes widened.

"Hinata! Come here right this instant!"

Hinata flinched her father's loud voice. She suddenly felt very afraid as she had a brief flashback to when she was a child.

She didn't want to go with him, afraid of what punishment her father might inflict on her next for whatever reason he was yelling at her. She was shaking when suddenly she felt Naruto's hand on her shoulder. She turned and looked back at him. He slowly nodded at her.

Hinata looked at him for a moment before finally realizing that he was urging her to go. She turned around and straightened her back.

"Mother, please give me strength." She whispered as she took one hand and gripped her necklace.

As Hinata began to walk forward, she took a quick look at her father but he was paying no attention to her, his eyes still on Naruto.

"Ko." He said.

A young hyuga member stepped forward, kneeling.

"Hai."

"You will take Hinata back to the compound at once and she is too not leave her room until i return. Is that understood?"

"Hai." The man turned around and took hold of Hinata's arm. "Hinata-sama. Please come with me."

She looked at the man, realizing that Ko was her old bodyguard when she was a child.

"Ko." She whispered recognizing him.

Ko looked at her with pleading eyes. "Please, Hinata-sama. Let us go."

Hinata began to go with Ko but not before taking one last look at Naruto. He flashed a smile at her and waved goodbye. As Hinata left his sight, Naruto turned his attention to Hiashi and the rest of the Hyuga elders.

"You are too never ever speak to my daughter again boy, do you hear me?" Hiashi stated. Naruto looked at him, his eyes stonecold. The elders had taken notice of the accursed child and stepped forward seeing Naruto's defiant stance ready to teach him a lesson when Hiashi stopped them.

"Come. Let us leave this wretched place." Hiashi said.

The elders were reluctant to leave but they knew of the law concerning Uzumaki Naruto, set down by the fifth hokage himself. As the the Hyuga left, Hiashi took one last look at Naruto. He felt his spine tingle as he locked eyes with the boy one last time. Turning his heels, he left, leaving the boy alone in the park.

Naruto took a deep breath before placing his hands in his pockets as he headed home. As he walked down the street with the sun to his back, his shadow began to expand itself making it visible on the buildings in front of him, only it wasn't his shadow but that of a nine tailed fox.

AN: Alright everyone, i hope you enjoyed this chapter of Tournament of Fire. I literally had the choice of going to a friends birthday party or working on this chapter and well...let's just say that you would not be reading this if i had gone. I didn't really feel like going anyways. So this is a shoutout to my friend Kelsey. If you're somehow reading this which i highly doubt then everything i just said is not true! Anyways to my readers, do not expect a chapter until at least after february. My schedule from what it looks like it jam packed which means no room for fanfiction. I will try to update as soon as possible.

Quick note, there is a reference to an old anime that i used to watch in this chapter. If you can name the anime and pm me it, then i will reveal to you how Naruto, Sasuke, Kitsune and Hebi all appeared at the same time at Ichiraku in chapter 2. Let the search begin!

Or you could really just pm your theories on how you think they did it. I may or may not tell you wheter they are true or not. :P.

Sincerely, BakaDango


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